


Rancour

by TheFoolsYouSee



Series: Where No Witch Has Gone Before [2]
Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Lumity in space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:42:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 25,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27668393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFoolsYouSee/pseuds/TheFoolsYouSee
Summary: Amity Blight is a Romulan Officer who knows that serving aboard an Imperial Warbird is exactly where she's supposed to be. But after being taken prisoner by a human Starfleet Officer on her first away mission, she starts to question her place in the Empire, as well as whether love can bloom across cultures.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Series: Where No Witch Has Gone Before [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2053068
Comments: 91
Kudos: 110





	1. Chapter 1

Brown and teal. It was a funny choice of colour scheme for the interior of a warship; earthy, yet with a hint of cultured design, almost fashionable. Not what one would expect from a military craft, home to a crew of well-disciplined soldiers. But then again, it had been decades since there had been a real ongoing campaign for them to be part of - odd skirmishes in one of the Empire’s many ongoing cold wars aside, the most regular action the crew of the _Infensus_ saw was their training drills. Rumblings had begun to sound of a new threat that might lead to a more overt conflict, but for now the orders that filtered down the command chain were always some variation on the same theme, watching and waiting. After all, that was the methodology that had served Romulans so well for so long.

Sublieutenant Amity Blight marched down the corridor of the _Infensus_ , her head high and her stride confident. She’d spent a minute or so in front of the mirror before leaving her quarters admiring the extra breadth the angled shoulders of her uniform gave her, their straight, sharp edges matching her severe haircut that she’d coloured with a green pigment. Since being posted to the imposing D’deridex class vessel, the young officer had had to find a sense of strength where she could, and wearing the uniform felt like wearing the evidence of all her hard work at the Imperial Academy. Taking it off after a shift felt like a transformation – she no longer saw an Officer in her reflection. She just saw _her_. She’d seen glimpses of newer uniforms with a less severe cut starting to enter service, and she would obviously serve the Empire in whatever capacity and in whatever clothes she was ordered to do so in. But it was nice to have a clear, unassailable sense of self as she performed her duty. Straight hair, straight shoulders; straightforward.

Amity entered the bridge and nodded to the officer at her station, who stepped back to allow her to take over. The command centre of the warbird was decorated in much the same way as the rest of the ship, teal panelling scattered about the ochre walls. Amity wryly wondered to herself if she’d been chosen for this posting simply because her chosen hair colour matched the décor.

Her fingers played over the touchscreen controls of her console and she glanced up at Commander L’Leth. The pale, dark-haired woman was resting one elbow on the arm of her seat, thoughtfully stroking a finger down the edge of a pointed ear. The whole room was structured around the central chair, an arrangement designed to ascribe power to its occupant, but Amity knew the Commander could carry that authority wherever she went. In the few months serving shifts as the bridge’s tactical officer, the Sublieutenant had learned the true meaning of control by example. In her first real battle situation with an overzealous Klingon scout ship, L’Leth’s calmly stated orders had helped Amity keep her head and navigate the still-unfamiliar control system to fire their disruptors. She’d managed to take out the enemy’s shields, at which point the Klingons seemed to redefine ‘honor’ in such a way that allowed them to retreat at maximum warp.

Today there was little chance of a skirmish like that. They were well inside Romulan space, patrolling a transport lane that ran past a colony planet. It didn’t seem like particularly important work to Amity, but L’Leth was treating it with the same assiduousness she gave every task.

‘Run a sensor sweep beyond the planet,’ the Commander instructed, and the Centurion at the operations console obeyed, typing in the appropriate sequence.

‘Yes Commander,’ he replied. ‘There’s a rogue asteroid a few thousand kilometres out, not close enough to be caught in an orbit. Its trajectory will take it well past… hang on…’

L’Leth turned her head to the puzzled-looking Centurion. ‘Something the matter?’ she asked.

‘I’ve just picked up another ship in the system, but there’s no warp trail,’ he frowned. ‘It’s a small freighter, no markings or transponder signal.’

Amity watched L’Leth tap a finger thoughtfully on the arm of her seat, and stood by ready to raise shields and charge weapons should the order come.

‘What’s their course?’

‘They’re headed down to the surface, Commander.’

L’Leth nodded. ‘Helm, bring us around to their side of the planet.’

The _Infensus’s_ thrusters propelled them around the slowly spinning globe on the main viewscreen, and Amity glanced down at the readout on her tactical display. She kept her eyes on the small blinking icon as it came into weapons range.

‘They’re scanning us,’ the operations Centurion said. ‘They’ve stopped their descent.’

‘Open hailing frequencies,’ the Commander instructed, and waited for the sound of the chime that signalled her order had been carried out before she spoke again. ‘This is Commander L’Leth of the warbird _Infensus_ , identify yourselves.’

There was a pause as she waited for a response, but none came.

‘Lock weapons,’ L’Leth ordered, and Amity dutifully selected the icon on her screen. It may well just be an intimidation tactic, but she kept her fingers close to the firing control all the same. When enough time had passed for the other ship to detect that they were being targeted, there was a sudden crackle as a responding signal came over subspace.

‘ _Geez Lily, we could at least say "hello" before we start shooting at each other_.’

Amity saw L’Leth tense at the sound of the voice, and the whole bridge crew shot furtive glances towards her; there was only one person who could be talking so casually from the other ship. The stories of the Commander’s infamous outlaw sister were well known. After deserting the Imperial Navy, it was said that she now roamed unprotected systems preying on defenceless colonists, who only knew her by one name:

‘The Witch…’

As soon at the whisper escaped Amity’s mouth, L’Leth’s head had whipped around to glare at her.

‘Control your tongue, Sublieutenant,’ she intoned.

'Sorry, Commander,' Amity nodded apologetically and lowered her eyes back to her console. There had been a new edge to the other woman’s tone, although when she spoke next it had been brought back under control.

‘I will not exchange pleasantries with a traitor to the Empire,’ L’Leth responded to her sister. ‘Surrender immediately.’

‘ _Look, I can’t do this with you over audio, let me just…_ ’

The viewscreen flickered and the image of the freighter hanging in space was replaced by a close-up shot of a nostril, which backed up until the face it was attached to came fully into frame. The woman looking back at them was as pale as her sister, and had long grey hair which expanded out from her head voluminously. Even before joining the Navy, Amity had rarely seen another Romulan with anything other than the carefully cropped, angular hairstyle that gave their species a sense of homogenous unity. It was disconcerting to see pointed ears sticking out from such an untamed mass.

‘Whoops,’ the Witch said as the viewscreen image tilted, and she reached forward to turn whatever makeshift camera she was using upright again. ‘Ah, there we go.’

‘E’Dalyn.’ L’Leth slowly stood from her chair and stepped forward to address the woman on the viewscreen. ‘You’re looking as monstrous as ever.’

‘Thanks!’ the Witch grinned, running a tongue over the singular, elongated fang that hung from the right side of her mouth. ‘You know how it is, with the curse and all. But how’ve _you_ been?’

Amity saw L’Leth’s fist actually clench at her side, but it was the only sign of frustration the Commander let through. ‘This is not a social call,’ she said firmly. ‘If you do not turn yourself over I _will_ destroy your vessel.’

‘Uh-huh?’ the Witch nodded, her tone almost bored. ‘You actually gonna hit me this time or blame the targeting systems again?’ She glanced around at the other bridge officers with a conspiratorial whisper. ‘In our entrance exam she tried to tell the instructor his simulation was broken because she couldn’t land a single hit on me!’

L’Leth’s eyes darted briefly to the faces of her crew with a little embarrassment, an emotion Amity didn’t think the Commander was capable of expressing. But she recovered herself and turned to stride back to her chair.

‘This conversation is over,’ she declared as she took her seat again. ‘Confirm your surrender in five seconds, or-’

‘You really shouldn’t sit up so straight, you know, you’ll give yourself a spasm.’

L’Leth leapt up from her chair again. ‘STOP BEING SUCH A _BRAT!’_ she screamed.

The entire bridge froze, the officers all now openly staring at their Commander, whose eyes were now wide with the realisation of just how undignified the outburst had been. She looked to Amity, who quickly lowered her eyes to her console.

‘Weapons still locked on, Commander,’ she confirmed.

‘ _We’re ready to go!_ ’ a new voice sounded from over the comms, making the Witch glance over at its source before smiling back at the camera again.

‘Well, I’ve stalled you for long enough Lily, I gotta go.’ She reached a hand forward again to tap a button. ‘Give my love to Mom!’ she added before the viewscreen blinked back to showing an external view of the freighter moving off.

Amity glanced back to L’Leth, who was staring forward with cold fury.

‘Fire at will,’ she hissed, not looking away from the other ship.

Amity quickly calculated the freighter’s trajectory and fired a disruptor burst. The beam hit the vessel’s shields solidly, and she watched her target’s energy signature fluctuate.

‘Shields down to fifty percent,’ she declared.

‘Continue firing,’ L’Leth replied, and though she couldn’t see it Amity could hear the smile in the other woman’s voice. The Sublieutenant fired another burst which brought the freighter’s shields to breaking point, but hesitated before lining up her next shot; was she to try and disable the ship? Or had the Commander really meant it when she had threatened her sister with destruction?

But the decision was taken out of her hands when the blinking icon on her display suddenly vanished completely. Amity frowned; she’d definitely not hit them that hard yet.

‘They’re gone!’ she announced. ‘They must have cloaked!’

‘Scan for tachyons!’ L’Leth barked to the operations officer, but the Centurion was looking down at his display with confusion.

‘I don’t understand…’ he muttered as he worked his controls. ‘There aren’t any.’

The Commander stood from her chair and rushed over, shoving the Centurion aside. Her eyes narrowed, scanning the readouts, and she slammed her palm against the console in frustration.

‘Keep looking,’ she instructed, going back to her seat. ‘Helm, make ready for warp the second we see their trail.’

Amity kept the disruptors primed. From the agitated way the Commander was tapping her fingers against the arm of her seat, she doubted she was going to be ordered to use restraint.

‘Wait, I have them!’ the Centurion cried. ‘They’re in the planet’s atmosphere, making to land.’

Some of the tension L’Leth was holding seemed to loosen at the confirmation that her quarry hadn’t escaped. ‘Now, what are you looking for _here,_ E’Dalyn?’ she murmured.

‘Shall I take us down?’ the helmswoman asked.

‘No,’ L’Leth shook her head and turned to fix Amity with an impenetrable look. The younger Romulan felt a sudden surge of panic - if she hadn’t hesitated, they would have had their victory by now.

But the Commander gave her an approving nod. ‘You’ve proven yourself in spacial combat, Sublieutenant, let’s see how you do on the ground. Take a squadron and beam to the surface.’

Amity saluted in acknowledgement and turned to a security guard positioned by the bridge’s entrance, gesturing for him to follow as she walked out of the Bridge. As she continued down the corridor she quickly ran through a mental list of the other members of the crew, singling out two more to summon to her team. She felt a rush of excitement at the chance to prove herself, although noted that L’Leth had once again failed to confirm what to do with their quarry once they had them.


	2. Chapter 2

The glitter of the transporter beam faded away and Amity squinted around at the gloom of the planet. She had chosen a spot a short distance from the freighter’s location so as not to start a firefight _quite_ as soon as they beamed down. She drew her disruptor from its holster in one hand, held out her scanning device in the other and turned to her three companions; the security guard from the bridge and the two women she had trained alongside at the Imperial Academy also had their weapons drawn.

‘This way,’ she instructed, and started leading her team over the rocky terrain towards the target on her device.

The air was bitterly cold, and the dark clouds rolling in overhead looked vicious. Amity knew the colony here was protected under a bio-dome, but still questioned why anyone would want to settle on a world like this. Then she remembered her Imperial History Professor at the Academy explaining how Romulan expansionist policy meant staking a claim to new territory immediately, with suitability of environment never being much of a concern. She heard an aggressive rumble of thunder in the distance, and felt a pang of sympathy for those who had been chosen to be part of this particular colony.

They passed under an arch of eroded rock, the tracker on Amity’s device zooming in further on their target as they approached it. But then it zoomed out again and a second marker appeared, further away and in the opposite direction. Amity frowned down at the display and stopped, holding up a hand to signal the others to do the same.

‘It’s showing up twice, to the north and to the south,’ she said.

‘The new one must be a decoy.’

‘Or the first was the decoy, and whatever they were using to hide their ship has failed.' Amity took a moment to consider her next move before pointing to two of her squadron. ‘You two take the one to the north; Boscha, with me.’

As the other pair took out their own scanners and headed to the north, Amity and Boscha continued the way they’d been going.

‘Looks like you’re being given the leadership roles again,’ Boscha muttered bitterly.

‘Being on the Bridge just gets you noticed more,’ Amity replied, keeping her voice low.

‘Yeah, and I wonder how you got _that_ posting?’

The green-haired woman felt a surge of anger at the pink-haired one’s accusation, and was about to put her fellow Sublieutenant in line when she heard a noise that made them both freeze – a scurry of stones had tumbled down from a ledge above them. Although Amity could still hear the storm moving in, the air around them was still. She quickly raised her disruptor and fired at the ledge above.

She heard a yelp near the spot her blast had hit, and a shadow darted away along the ledge. Boscha fired at the figure too but also missed, and the beam of her weapon carved a dark line into the stone. Both women leapt back as larger rocks crashed to the ground right where they’d been stood, and Amity glanced back up to see the shadow run round a corner and disappear from sight. She quickly looked at her scanner’s display, which showed a web of tunnels inside the rockface that came out onto the ledge above. Her eyes fell on a nearby cave that her scanner tolder led into the network, and she rushed inside.

‘Wait, don’t!’

Amity stopped just inside the cave and looked back at the sound of Boscha's cry. Then she looked up at the sound of the rockslide tumbling toward her as more of the ledge gave way.

The rocks pounded down, knocking her to the floor and winding her. She quickly rolled as far into the cave as she could, narrowly escaping the heavier boulders plummeting to the ground, only stopping when she could no longer feel rubble bouncing off her. When the noise of the barrage had come to an end, she lifted her head and groaned at the bruised sensation that seemed to cover her whole body. Blinking her eyes as they adjusted to the now-dim light, she made out a barrier of rocks blocking the cave entrance. A small light shone out from the floor, and she struggled to her feet and hobbled over to it.

Her crumpled scanner flickered as she picked it up. Amity hit it with her palm, but it didn’t improve the broken, distorted display. She pressed the communications button on the side.

‘Boscha?’ she called out, but there was no answer from the scanner or from outside the cave. ‘Skara? Sublieutenant Blight to _Infensus_ , respond!’

Still nothing. Amity snarled and threw the scanner to the ground. Even if her voice could travel through the wall of rocks, Boscha had most likely already gone to try and capture their target herself and gain the glory. The injured woman turned around and switched on the torch on the top of her disruptor, shining its light down the tunnel. She limped forward as quickly as she could bear, trying to recall how the underground network had been laid out on her scanner’s display. Every now and again she flicked the disruptor’s torch off, trying to see if any natural light was coming through from ahead. But the tunnel only seemed to be getting darker, and soon Amity had lost any sense of where she was. Panic started to rise in her chest and she stumbled forward more quickly.

She rounded a corner, and gave a surprised shriek as she almost crashed into another figure, who gave a similar cry of fright. Amity quickly raised her disruptor, and blinked in shock as her torch illuminated the other person’s face.

They were _human_. Her light illuminated the figure’s top half and Amity could make out tan skin and short brown hair. But their attempt at disguising themselves with a mottled cloak was ruined by the Starfleet-issue phaser they were pointing.

‘Drop your weapon,’ the human ordered.

Amity tried to gauge the expression of the woman who was so far from Federation space. She looked agitated, but her grip on the phaser was firm and her stance was solid. Amity could feel her own legs shaking and knew that if her opponent fired first she was in no condition to try and dive out of the way. She slowly bent down and laid her disruptor on the floor, wincing as she stood upright again.

‘Kick it over.’

Amity compliantly reached a foot forward and flicked her weapon across the space between them, the light of its torch tumbling over the ground. The human picked it up and straightened herself, holding both weapons forward in each hand. Amity squinted as the light from her own disruptor shone into her eyes.

‘How many of you are there?’ the other woman's voice came from behind the torch.

But Amity just glared forward, keeping her mouth firmly closed. The light’s source moved to the side as her captor stepped back against the cave wall.

‘Alright, this way.’

Amity walked on, making sure to direct a scowl towards the torch as she passed. As she limped along, the beam shone from behind her onto the tunnel floor in front of her feet, and she heard the beeping of a Starfleet tricorder as the human scanned the trail ahead, guiding her prisoner with the torch. The tunnel began to incline upward, and a rushing sound started to come from outside. Soon Amity could see light coming from ahead even with the torch’s beam, and then they rounded a corner into an opening.

Rain was now falling heavily from a thick, blackened sky, and a crack of thunder sounded out overhead before fading away. Both women stopped at the edge of the tunnel, seeing steam rise from the ledge outside.

‘Is it acid?’ the human murmured to herself, bringing her tricorder forward to scan while keeping the disruptor trained on her captive. ‘No, just water, but it’s near a hundred degrees Celsius.’ She glanced over at Amity. ‘That’s really hot,’ she explained.

‘Yeah, I can tell,’ the Romulan sneered back. She turned to look back down the tunnel, but gasped as her ribs stung with pain, her hand involuntarily going up to clutch at her side. The human quickly turned, her hand tightening on the disruptor at the sudden movement, but then she frowned.

‘You hurt?’ she asked.

Amity kept silent, feeling more frustration rise both from her weakened state and at the infuriating tone of concern in the other woman’s voice.

‘Sit,’ the human instructed.

‘No,’ Amity retorted.

Her captor holstered her tricorder and drew the phaser again. ‘Sit, or I’ll stun you.’

Amity huffed and leant back on the cave wall, sliding down it with a groan until she was sat on the floor. The human sat on the opposite side of the tunnel’s mouth, and they both looked out at the steady torrent of rain. Amity lifted her eyes to the clouds and wondered if the _Infensus_ was still in orbit beyond them; Boscha may have already captured their target, told L’Leth about the tragic loss of the squadron’s leader and be on her way back to Romulus for a promotion followed by the public execution of her prisoner. Amity saw the beam of the disruptor’s torch wave out erratically from the cave; she looked over at her cavemate, who was turning the weapon over in her hands trying to find the control to switch the light off.

‘It’s on the right,’ Amity found herself saying.

‘Oh, thanks.’ The other woman pressed the button and the torch flicked off. She put the disruptor on the ground at her side, keeping her phaser pointed at the Romulan.

Amity looked over her captor again; now that they were more illuminated, she realised the human was barely any older than her, if at all. Under the cloak's collar she saw a single dot on the neck of their shirt that denoted the lowest-ranked Federation officers. What was a Starfleet Ensign doing on a planet deep in Romulan territory?

‘ _Hey Luz, you there?_ ’ a tinny voice sounded out and the human tapped at the chest of her cloak, something underneath it chirping at the touch.

‘Yeah, I made a friend,’ she replied. ‘We’re holed up until the rain stops.’

‘ _Want me to beam you back?_ ’ Amity recognised the voice as that of the Witch, and burned at the idea that the deserter was working with the Federation.

‘No, keep the _Light’s_ power down,’ Luz replied. ‘Both the decoys I put out worked, it doesn’t look like they’ve found you yet.’ She gave Amity a grin and a cheeky wink, which almost made the Romulan explode with fury. She considered making a leap for her disruptor, but could still feel pain shooting through her at every small movement.

‘ _Alright, we’ll sit tight until you’re back,_ ’ the Witch responded, and Luz tapped her badge again to end the transmission.

‘So, you know _my_ name now,’ she said conversationally. ‘What’s yours?’

Amity stared. She was being held hostage at the end of a phaser, and this human was being _friendly_. She’d always thought the descriptions she’d heard of the Federation species had been exaggerated to make them seem weak and foolish. But here was evidence in front of her, backing up every assertion of the galactic powerhouse’s naiveté. Although, Amity conceded, the human was the one holding the phaser on _her_ right now.

‘Why are you trying to talk to me?’ she scowled.

Luz shrugged. ‘Just bored.’

Amity watched the other woman look back out at the boiling rain. Maybe this wasn’t as hopeless a situation as she’d thought. If the human was willing to open up…

‘Sublieutenant Amity Blight, of the Romulan Warbird _Infensus_ ,’ she said.

‘Ooh, a _surname_!’ Luz smiled. ‘Aren’t we getting familiar?’

Amity felt herself tense with frustration again, but kept her face neutral. ‘What’s a Starfleet Officer doing on a Romulan colony world?’ she asked.

A guarded look suddenly came over the human’s face. ‘Oh you know,’ she said, ‘I heard what nice planets you have over here. Ouch!’ She pulled her boot back from the cave’s edge as a raindrop splashed onto it, steaming at the point of impact.

‘Whatever secret operation the Federation has going on, we’ll find-’ Amity suddenly winced again, clutching her side.

‘What is it?’

‘It’s nothing,’ the Romulan glowered, but Luz lifted her tricorder. She shuffled forward on her knees and waved the chirping device slowly over her prisoner. Amity kept her eyes down and her hand on her rib.

Then she suddenly kicked the device from the human’s hand.

Luz instinctively turned to try and grab it as it flew away, and Amity dived forward, tackling her to the ground. Pain burned through every part of the Romulan's body, but she scrambled over the human. If she could just reach the spot where the disruptor had been left on the ground…

But then she heard the sound of a phaser firing and felt a burning sting before everything went black.


	3. Chapter 3

Light was shining through Amity’s eyelids. Too much light. She raised a hand to block it out; she was sure she’d set her quarters’ illumination to come up gently in the mornings. But then the memories of the mission to the colony planet came back and she opened her eyes.

There was an unfamiliar grey ceiling above, and she raised her head to glance around at what looked like a tiny sickbay. She was lying on the singular bio-bed, still wearing her uniform. Turning her head, she saw that the sickbay opened up into a kind of open-plan deck, a long table filling the space between her section and a viewscreen at the opposite end, where two pilots’ chairs were stationed in front of a bank of consoles. She squinted forward and saw brown rock through the viewscreen, as well as a mass of grey hair sticking out above one of the chairs. The hum Amity could feel vibrating through the ship confused her until the rock in front of the viewscreen slowly rotated around and she saw a snatch of stars behind it. The _Infensus_ Operations officer had mentioned a nearby asteroid, after somehow taking off from the planet without being detected, the Witch must have managed to hide her vessel behind it. Amity frowned. Why weren’t they using their oddly perfect cloak like they had before? Her eyes moved toward the table in the mid-section, and saw the Starfleet officer who’d shot her sitting at it, her cloak now removed to reveal her gold-shouldered uniform, looking down at a PADD. Amity considered pretending to remain unconscious to see what she could overhear, but before she could lay her head back down Luz glanced over and smiled at her.

‘How do you feel?’ she asked.

The Romulan sat up fully and flexed her hands. The ache that had consumed her since she’d been caught in the rockslide was gone.

‘What did you do to me?’

‘Just gave you a quick once-over with an osteo-regenerator,’ Luz replied. ‘Luckily you hadn’t broken anything.’

Amity stared at her. ‘So you brought a weakened enemy back to your ship… and then you _healed_ me?’ She shook her head in disbelief. How had Starfleet ever become a serious contender for galactic dominance? She stood up and stepped over to the edge of the sickbay, reaching her hand out. Her fingers buzzed against the invisible force-field she’d expected, which was trapping her in the room.

‘You won’t escape the system,’ she said. ‘Commander L’Leth has never lost a target.’

‘Is that what she’s told you?’ The pilot’s chair spun round and the Witch grinned at Amity across the length of the ship. ‘I’ve got some stories.’

Amity glared at the other Romulan woman sauntering down towards the makeshift cell. ‘I wouldn’t believe the words of a deserter,’ she said, acid in her voice.

The Witch rolled her eyes and turned to Luz. ‘Did you _have_ to bring her back?’

‘I couldn’t leave her, Eda!’ the human protested. ‘Who knows if her crew would have tracked her down?’

 _Or if they’d have tried to_ , Amity thought to herself. But then another thought made her frown. ‘Wait, if you didn't want to be beamed back, did you… _carry_ me here?’ she asked.

‘Yeah,’ Eda chuckled. ‘Stronger than she looks isn’t she? Although she dumped you down like a sack of lehe’jhme as soon as she could.’

Luz smiled sheepishly, but the humiliating image of being carried in the arms of a Starfleet officer made Amity blush with embarrassment. She turned and stalked back to sit on the bio-bed, facing away from her captors; there was no way she’d be able to build herself an impressive reputation if this ever got out.

A beep sounded from the front of the ship. Amity peeked over her shoulder and saw the two other women heading back to the control consoles.

‘Looks like you were right,’ Luz said, but Eda sighed heavily.

‘Oh Lily,’ she muttered. ‘Why do you have to take things so personally?’

The grey-haired Romulan pressed a button and Amity turned fully as L’Leth’s voice sounded over the comm system.

‘ _Colonists of Bonsboro IV,’_ the Commander was saying. ‘ _A fugitive of the Empire has come to your world, and we have traced communications from her to your colony. Harbouring traitors will not be tolerated. Our weapons are currently trained on your environmental protection grid, and if you do not give her up we will destroy it and leave you to the mercy of your planet’s elements. You will be an example to others as to the cost of betraying the Empire.’_

Luz gave Eda a shocked glance. ‘She wouldn’t do that, would she?’

But whatever look was on Eda’s face made the human’s eyes widen in horror, and she turned in her chair to look back towards Amity. The imprisoned Sublieutenant tried to give her a smirk, but the thought of the civilians on the surface being exposed to the boiling rains she’d seen for herself was making her feel nauseous. But this would be part of some clever gambit. The Commander knew what she was doing.

‘They’re charging disruptors!’ Luz announced, looking down at her own console.

Amity started to remember the many speeches and lectures she and her crewmates had been given about the cost of disloyalty. She wondered who it was manning the _Infensus’s_ tactical console right now, and whether she would have been able to fire the shot if it were her.

‘Eda, we’ve got to do something!’ Luz cried, but the grey-haired woman’s fingers were already flying over her controls.

Amity had to grab the bed as the ship lurched upwards. The viewscreen showed the asteroid dip down as they flew over and sped towards the _Infensus_ , which was hanging in space some distance away. But the image of the Warbird quickly grew larger as they raced towards it, shooting straight through the hollow gap between its wings.

‘Think that did it?’ Luz asked.

The ship suddenly jolted with the impact of weapons fire.

‘Yep, she saw us alright!’ Eda replied. ‘Prepare for warp!’

‘Coils charged and ready!’ Luz confirmed. The ship jolted again, more violently this time.

‘Gun it!’ Eda yelled, and the human punched a final control. The stars on the viewscreen started to zip past, melding into a blue-white blur until with a final flash the ship entered warp. Eda pressed another control. ‘Engine Room, there’s been a change of plan.’

Another, strangely familiar female voice came over the comms; ‘ _You never said we’d be going to warp!_ ’

‘I had to do a daring act of heroism, alright?’ Eda retorted, before turning to Luz. ‘How are we looking?’

‘They’re gaining on us fast!’ Luz responded.

‘ _I’m gonna have to fully recalculate!_ ’ the voice from the Engine Room said.

‘Well do it fast!’ Eda snapped.

‘They’re entering weapons range!’ Luz gripped her console. ‘Hold on!’

A massive quake rocked the ship. Amity was knocked from her perch on the bio bed, and threw her hands out to the floor to catch herself. Loud sparks flew from consoles and displays across the deck, and after the main tremor had passed the ship continued to shudder as it sped on.

‘Shields are gone!’

‘Divert all power to the Engine Room, keep them operational!’

‘It won’t do any good if we’re blown apart before they can-’

Then Luz seemed to have an idea and turned her chair around ‘Amity, you’ve got to help us! How can we deflect their attacks?’

The Romulan prisoner scoffed. ‘I’d never tell you!’ But then she was thrown back to the floor as the ship was pitched by another shot.

‘You’d really rather die with us?’ Eda asked incredulously.

Amity hesitated. She wasn’t a coward. But she wasn’t a fool either.

‘Tell them I’m aboard!’ she suggested.

Eda shook her head. ‘We’ve just lost external comms. The first time you lot hit us you did a number on our power grid, so whoever _that_ was did you a real favour.’

Amity clenched her teeth and groaned at the painful irony. The Commander really did seem to be pushing the attack to its final conclusion.

‘We just need a little more time,’ Luz turned to Amity again. ‘Come on, give us anything!’

The Sublieutenant looked back at the pleading face of the human, who had carried her back to heal her injuries, and had shown real fear at the idea of the Romulan colony being in danger. Amity cursed mentally to herself.

‘The _Infensus_ cycles its disruptor frequency from high to low bands,’ she said. ‘If you can match it then you can repel the shots.’

Luz turned to Eda. ‘Can we use the deflector array?’

‘Perfect time to find out!’ Eda replied.

The human frantically danced her fingers over her controls. ‘Did you say high to low?’

‘Yes!’ Amity called across the ship exasperatedly. ‘Start in the high three-hundreds!’

Luz kept working, but the ship was pitched by another explosion on the outer hull. A section of the ceiling in the sickbay came down and Amity dived out of the way as it crushed the bio-bed.

‘I can’t follow it!’ Luz yelled. She leapt up from her chair and ran down the length of the ship, staggering as the engines shifted. She reached the sickbay and pressed a control on the wall.

The force-field dropped with a buzz and a flicker. The two women stood where they were for a long second; the human was close enough for Amity to reach out and strike.

‘Let’s go,’ Luz said, and they both hurried up to the front of the ship.

Amity saw Eda eye her warily as she took the empty seat, but the older Romulan carried on flying. The younger one briefly scanned her eyes over the console’s layout before calibrating the frequency of the deflector. She noted the signature of the next pulse charging in the _Infensus’s_ disruptors, and raised their deflector’s frequency close enough to the same number just in time.

There was a soft rumble, barely noticeable above the ongoing shudders all around them.

‘Okay, guess you’re really helping,’ Eda conceded, and pressed the comms button again. ‘How we doing?’

‘ _I need a couple more minutes!_ ’ the reply came.

Something about that voice was still pulling at a memory in Amity’s head, but she pushed it down as she adjusted the frequency for the next incoming shot. Again there was barely a change to the ship’s motion, although it was still shaking and a burning smell was beginning to fill the air.

‘We’re gonna fly apart at this rate even if they don’t hit us again,’ Luz said as she opened a panel on the wall and pulled out a fire extinguisher.

‘We can start repairs once we’re out of here!’ Eda replied.

‘We’re not going to outrun them,’ Amity protested. ‘How are we meant to escape from-’

‘Let us worry about that!’ Eda cut her off. Amity scowled, but looked back down at her console, which was showing another charging shot aimed right at the engines. But she couldn’t help but grin as she suddenly recognised the attack pattern.

‘Nice try, Boscha,’ she muttered and punched in the beam’s frequency, matching it to the digit.

She felt a rush of exhilaration as her display showed the disruptor beam reflect off the deflector field and bounce back onto the _Infensus_ , the Warbird’s own powerful weapons taking a satisfying chunk out of their shield strength.

‘ _I’ve got it!_ ’ the voice from the engine room sounded.

‘Do it, W’Lo!’ Eda cried.

Amity’s head whipped round. ‘Wait, did you say-’

But then there was an all-encompassing white flash.


	4. Chapter 4

Amity blinked the spots from her eyes as the light faded, and looked back down at her console. She frowned and double-checked the readings; she was certain she hadn’t been knocked out by whatever had just happened, and Eda still looked tense from the one-sided battle. But the console’s display showed that they were in a completely different sector to where they’d just been, and there were no other ships within scanning range.

She turned her head at the sound of a spluttering cough and saw Luz stood in front of a smoking display screen on the wall, turning the fire extinguisher over in her hands to try and make sense of the Romulan design. Amity hurried over, took it from her, and sprayed foam from the nozzle over the sparking panel until the last embers were gone.

Luz waved the remaining smoke away from her face. ‘Thanks,’ she said before looking to Eda. ‘We good?’

Eda nodded back. ‘Not a Warbird in sight.’

Luz gave Amity a big grin, and before the Romulan could stop her the human was lifting her off the ground in a hug, laughing euphorically. Amity quickly wriggled out of the other woman’s grip and shoved her away, glaring incredulously. But Luz kept giggling.

‘That was some fancy deflector work you did,’ she said, impressed.

‘Uh, thanks.’ Amity suddenly remembered that they were out of danger and she was no longer imprisoned. She glanced at one of the doors that led out off from the deck and wondered where the escape pod would be on this ship. But then again they were now in the middle of deep space, so she’d have nowhere to go.

‘I wish I could have seen Lily’s face when one of her own officers bounced that last shot back at her,’ Eda chuckled, turning her chair around to face the other two.

‘Well, it’s not like she knew it was me,’ Amity countered.

The grey-haired woman smirked. ‘Anyone else from your crew go missing right before an enemy ship showed sudden knowledge of how to deflect your weapons?’

Amity folded her arms, shifting uncomfortably. ‘No.’

‘Then they knew it was you.’

‘Hang on, I wasn’t helping you!’ Amity protested. ‘I just didn’t want to die!’

‘Yeah, the Imperial Navy’s famously understanding about treachery.’ Eda snorted with laughter as she stood and walked down towards the aft section, clearing a path through the debris that had fallen.

Amity stared blankly at the spot where the older woman had been, feeling panic start to rush through her. She’d worked _so_ hard to be the top graduate in her class at the Academy and maintain a spotless performance record. Now all of that was gone, vaporised in a single moment. _Why had she let herself get carried away?!_ If she’d just let that last shot fizzle out against the deflector, she could have still found a way to escape and made her way back with valuable intelligence about a Federation plot. But now she’d be seen as just as much of a traitor as the Witch she’d abetted.

The electronic squeal of a disruptor being charged came from behind her. ‘Don’t move,’ the familiar voice she’d heard before hissed.

Amity sighed. And then, of course, there was _this_.

‘W’Lo, stop, it’s fine!’ Luz protested, but the ongoing squeal of the charged disruptor stayed where it was. Amity slowly turned on the spot and looked into the eyes of her childhood friend.

‘Hello Amity,’ W’Lo said, unsmilingly.

The last time Amity had seen the other young Romulan had been from her bedroom window when the whole Paak family had been marched out of their house by the enforcement officers she’d summoned. W’Lo had sported a standard angular hairdo back then, but her dark hair now reached her chin, the length seemingly marking her allegiance to this crew of outlaws. A pair of protective goggles were resting on her forehead above green eyes which were fixing Amity with a furious glare.

‘She was helping,’ Luz continued. ‘You wouldn’t have been able to get us out of there if she hadn’t bought us time.’

W’Lo scoffed, keeping her eyes on the green-haired Romulan. ‘ _You_ betrayed your ship?’

Amity glowered back silently. Maybe if she didn’t admit it out loud then somehow it wouldn’t be true.

‘Yeah, and she got real flashy with it too,’ Eda interjected casually as she walked back past the standoff. ‘How’s the drive looking?’

‘The induction coils are fried,’ W’Lo replied, still not taking her eyes off Amity. ‘Even if we get replacements, they won’t be up and running for at least a week.’

‘A week?’ Luz raised her eyebrows. ‘He won’t be happy,’ she warned.

‘He’s _never_ happy,’ Eda tutted. ‘Where’s Kay? We need all hands on deck for repairs.’

‘In his quarters,’ W’Lo said.

Eda grunted disapprovingly. ‘That guy can sleep through anything.’ She pressed a control next to one of the doors and stepped through as it opened, leaving the three women to continue their standoff.

‘W’Lo,’ Luz began carefully, ‘we need to focus on getting up and running again.’

‘Where are we gonna put _her_ then?’ the armed woman asked, and Amity felt a surge of anger at being talked about like she wasn’t there.

‘Well the sickbay’s a bit… broken,’ Luz said with a grimace, and they all glanced over at the collapsed bulkhead in the aft section. Luz put a hand on W’Lo’s raised arm. ‘She can work with me, I’ll keep an eye on her.’

‘Hey!’ Amity protested. ‘I never agreed to help you!’

‘Alright.’ W’Lo pressed her disruptor into Amity’s chest. ‘Then we’ll stun you and stick you in a cupboard.’

‘Uh, W’Lo?’ Luz warned quietly. ‘Disruptors don’t have a stun setting.’

‘Oh, don’t they?’ W’Lo asked, smirking at Amity. It took the Sublieutenant a few stubborn seconds before she could admit to herself that there was only one option.

‘Fine,’ she huffed, and pushed the disruptor away. ‘We’ll have to start with the engine core, I felt it get destabilised in the attack.’

But the other Romulan held out an arm to block Amity as she went to head towards one of the doors. ‘I’ll deal with that,’ W'Lo said. ‘You’re not going anywhere near the vital systems.’ The two women shared a scowl before Luz started guiding Amity away.

‘You can help me clear this up,’ the human said, gesturing to the detritus that now littered the deck. They started moving the larger pieces of the collapsed bulkhead off the floor and onto the table, and as she worked Amity watched W’Lo head to the door. But it opened before the other woman could press the control, and she stepped back to let Eda back in, followed by a second figure

Amity stared at him; his ridged, bony forehead was crowned with wavy brown hair that fell past his broad shoulders, draping over the white animal-fur jacket that was wrapped around his torso. He was unmistakably a Klingon. Except for the fact that he was, at most, three feet tall.

‘ _Morning_ Kay,’ W’Lo said pointedly as she walked past him through the doorway, and the small man waved her grumpily aside.

Luz saw Amity staring and leant over. ‘That’s the Emperor,’ she whispered.

‘ _THAT’S_ the Klingon Emperor?!’ Amity had heard of the cloned recreation the Klingons had made of their legendary saviour to serve as a political figurehead, but she was certain that _this_ bit of information would have leaked out somehow.

‘Not THE Emperor,’ Luz replied. ‘But it turns out when they were trying to clone him, they did a couple of, uh, _test runs_.’

The diminutive figure was looking around disapprovingly at the wreckage. ‘Wake me when there’s a battle next time,’ he scolded Eda.

‘If the ship getting blasted doesn’t wake you, then there’s nothing else I can do,’ Eda retorted as she nudged a display screen on the wall back into its socket. Kay’s eyes fell on Amity and the pieces of debris in her hands.

‘Ah, a prisoner of war!’ He grinned a sharp-toothed grin. ‘Slavery’s too good for you if you ask me. In _my_ Empire we’d stick your corpse to the hull as a warning to anyone else who’d dare attack us!’

‘ _Your_ Empire?’ Amity couldn’t help her incredulous tone, which made Kay frown and hop up onto the table to meet her eye line.

‘You bet, my Empire!’ He pointed a tiny fist at her. ‘Tremble before Kahless, Emperor of all Klingons!’

Amity didn’t even try to hide her giggle, looking from Kay’s offended expression to Luz’s protective one.

‘It’s not _that_ funny,’ the human insisted.

‘You’re right,’ Amity agreed. ‘It’s funnier.’

She let out a loud, long cackle, letting all the tension from the day escape through it. After she’d caught her breath, she patted Kay on the shoulder.

‘Thank you, I really needed that,’ she sighed. The Klingon’s infuriated expression made her feel another burst of joy, and she kept chuckling as she reached down to lift another piece of broken bulkhead.

After a couple of hours they’d managed to affix the larger parts of the ship’s internal structure back into place. Luz had valiantly attempted to lift the sickbay bulkhead on her own while Amity watched her with amusement from a distance. Then Eda had come along and, to the Sublieutenant’s surprise, pushed it back up with one hand.

‘Let’s hear it for team Romulus!’ she cried triumphantly to Amity, flexing a bicep at her.

‘Yeah, but you’re not _just_ -’ Luz stopped herself halfway through her cheeky retort and glanced nervously at Amity, but Eda waved a dismissive hand to the human.

‘Nah, it’s fine.’ Eda tapped the V-shaped ridge on her forehead as she turned back to Amity. ‘I bet you thought me and Lily were just Northerners, right?’

Curiosity creased Amity’s own ridgeless forehead that revealed her as coming from their home planet’s southern hemisphere. ‘Yeah?’

But Eda shook her head. ‘The Family Curse, she calls it. Our mother’s father was Reman.’

‘ _Oh_.’ Amity didn’t quite know how to react. A Reman’s Mate was a particularly coarse insult that had been thrown around a lot at the Academy, but she’d never thought about the actual possibility of offspring between a Romulan and a member of the Empire’s slave caste. She suddenly noticed how much more the grey-haired woman’s ears stuck outward.

‘Yeah, some of us get more of it than others,’ Eda said, licking her singular fang. ‘The package tends to be premature aging, a bit of extra strength and random, unhelpful touch-telepathy.’

‘A genetically inferior mix,’ Kay sneered, aggressively raising the broom he’d been sweeping with. ‘You’d never survive going toe-to-toe with a _real_ warrior!’

Eda sighed. ‘We’ve been through this before, your so-called highness. And this time our sickbay’s out of commission.’

Kay shook his head sadly. ‘It’s true, fate has trapped me in this humiliating body. But when the true Emperor leads my brothers to conquer your pitiful species, he shall tower over you all!’

‘He really wouldn’t,’ Luz whispered conspiratorially to Amity. ‘Even the real Emperor’s like…’

She raised a hand to mark a height slightly shorter than them and Amity covered a snort of laughter. But as Luz went off to move another piece of debris, the Sublieutenant realised how much she’d been lulled into a relaxed state by this ship of oddities. She glanced around and her eyes fell on one of the re-affixed display screens.

‘ _Azura’s Light_ ,’ she read out loud.

Eda huffed. ‘I know, way too flowery a name for a ship,’ she said, gesturing to Luz. ‘ _She’s_ the one who picked it.’

‘You did?’ Amity asked in surprise. ‘How does a human know about Romulan goddesses?’

Luz kicked her feet shyly. ‘I’m, uh… kind of a geek for Romulan culture.’

‘Can’t hold your ale though, can you?’ Eda grinned, which earned her a smack on the arm from the human. Amity watched the pair laughing easily together and tried to remember any comparable moment on the _Infensus_ or at the Academy, or even with her family back on Romulus. She suddenly had to stifle a yawn that had crept into her mouth, but Luz had spotted her.

‘I think we can call that the day shift,’ the human declared.

Eda nodded. ‘Kay, it’s your watch. I’m gonna go check in on W’Lo and-’

She suddenly stopped herself, glancing at Amity. The Sublieutenant started to feel on the other side of a tension again as Eda stood and left the room, and Luz remained silent as they both watched Kay clamber up onto the pilot’s chair, reaching his arms out to the controls.

‘So,’ the human announced, looking over at the still-smashed remains of the sickbay’s bio-bed, ‘I guess you can bunk in my room.’


	5. Chapter 5

Amity followed Luz down the corridor towards her quarters. She was surprised at how openly the human had offered to share a space with her overnight, but if the other option was W’Lo’s threat of a cupboard then she wasn’t going to question it. Luz stopped outside a door and opened it, and the pair stepped through.

Luz’s belongings were haphazardly strewn around the room. Amity had always been under one regime or other that had required her to keep her belongings in order, and she was taken a little aback at the sight of the mess. But as her eyes passed over the discarded clothes and half-repaired gadgets she saw a problem, and Luz seemed to notice her concerned expression.

‘Don’t worry,’ the human smiled, going over and tapping a hand on the bed. ‘There’s plenty of room.’

‘ _Absolutely_ not,’ Amity said firmly.

‘I don’t think we’ve got much choice,’ Luz said with an apologetic look. ‘All the quarters are the same. Plus Eda snores, and the others, uh…’

‘Hate me, I know,’ Amity nodded. She looked down at the floor and started to clear some space with her foot.

‘The deck’s pretty hard,’ Luz warned.

‘I’ll manage,’ Amity said.

‘Well, if you’re sure, I’m gonna jump in the sonic shower.’ Luz started towards a side-door. Then she paused, glancing back at her new roommate. She went over to the door that led back out into the corridor and starting to type in a code to lock it, glancing back again to give Amity a sheepish grin as she did so. But when she was finished she remained facing away from her, hesitating.

‘You’re not… you’re not gonna hurt me, are you?’

Now that they were locked in together, Amity could see something approaching fear in the human’s eyes as she peered back over her shoulder. She considered her options.

‘You know Romulan culture, right?’ she replied. ‘Do you know about the Oath of Ga’Sharr?'

Luz nodded and turned fully to face her. Amity lifted her hand, raising her first two fingers, and Luz came over and did the same. The two women put their fingers against each other’s.

‘I swear on my family’s name that I will not hurt you,’ Amity said, and saw the fear fade away from Luz’s eyes.

‘Thanks,’ she said, giving her a final smile, and went into the washroom.

Amity was alone for the first time since she’d been captured. Now there was no-one to pretend she was manipulating or putting on an act for; it was just her and the inescapable realisation that she was stuck here, most likely unable to ever return to the Imperial Navy. But should she try anyway? _She_ knew she wasn’t a traitor. Would the truly loyal thing be to escape, go back, and rely on the truth to protect her?

Then she remembered L’Leth’s threat to the colonists, sighed, and started to undo the belts on her uniform’s tunic.

By the time Luz came out of the sonic shower, Amity had settled herself in a spot on the floor. She’d only removed her outer tunic and boots and left her undershirt and trousers on. The floor _was_ hard, but she was determined not to show any discomfort and was lying on her back with her hands behind her head. She glanced at Luz as the human came back into the room, now only wearing a vest and shorts. She gave Amity another awkward smile before sliding the folded uniform in her arms into a slot in the wall, which started to hum as the fabric-refresher did its work.

‘If I’m having the mattress, you should at least get the blanket and pillow,’ she offered.

‘I’m fine,’ Amity insisted, holding onto a last shred of noncompliance with her captor. She rolled over to face the door, resting her head on her arm, and listened to the human pad over to the bed and settle herself on it.

‘Computer, lights off,’ Luz instructed, and the room’s illumination dimmed to black.

Amity gave a heavy sigh, and tried to get a little more comfortable on the floor. She’d considered using her tunic as bedding, but the scratchy outer fabric would have just kept her irritated all night.

Then she suddenly felt something soft fall onto her body – Luz had thrown the blanket over her from the bed.

Amity lay still. Maybe the human would think she was already asleep, and she could keep the extra layer of warmth without having to acknowledge the act of charity. But then she heard an amused chuckle along with a creak of the mattress as her roommate lay back down. She realised she’d been holding her breath, and felt her face flush with embarrassment again at having been caught in her attempt at deception.

* * *

Amity was awoken the next morning by the ache in her back and sat up with a groan, pushing the blanket off. Her neck made an uncomfortable clicking noise as she looked over at the bed; Luz was drooling slightly on her pillow as she continued snoring, one leg dangling off the mattress. Amity felt a little affronted at how comfortable the human seemed to be around her already. She got to her feet, pausing briefly as her back gave another twinge, and went into the washroom.

When she came out again Luz was awake, dressed, and fiddling with the wiring on a tool. The human looked up at her with a smile.

‘Morning,’ she said cheerily.

Amity frowned at the blue shoulders on the human’s uniform. ‘I thought you were in the gold track?’

‘Oh,’ Luz glanced down at her clothes. ‘I switched a couple of times. And these days I don’t have an XO telling me what to wear.’ She put her gadget aside and went over to the door, punching in the code to unlock it. ‘Come on, let’s see if Kay started a war with anyone.’

Amity followed Luz out of the room and down the corridor, back to the freighter’s central deck. The human yawned as they stepped through the doorway and went straight to the replicator. Amity glanced around at the crude repairs they’d made the previous night, and then looked over at the viewscreen.

A Klingon Bird of Prey was hanging in space in front of them.

Amity felt a rush of adrenalin and darted over to the empty pilot’s seat. How could she have trusted this idiotic crew’s judgement in letting a Klingon take command? Even a hilarious-looking one. She checked that the shields were back online and quickly raised them. Maybe if they got off the first shot…

‘Hey, whoa, whoa! What are you doing?’ Luz quickly hurried over, the hot liquid from her mug spilling over slightly.

‘Trying to save us, _again_!’ Amity retorted as she looked for the disruptors.

‘Stop!’ the human cried, grabbing her hand. ‘It’s just our rendezvous!’

‘A Klingon ship, in the middle of Romulan space?’ Amity frowned doubtfully. But then the comm lines crackled on.

‘Uh, Luz?’ Eda’s voice sounded. ‘I was just about to beam back but the _Light’s_ shields are up. Everything okay?’

Luz reached over Amity and pressed the button to respond. ‘Yeah we’re fine, lowering them now.’ She deactivated the shield grid and exhaled. ‘You really know how to wake a girl up. Come on, let’s go help Eda unload.’

Amity glanced back at the ship on the viewscreen warily, but then stood from her chair to follow Luz. They went through another door to a small transporter bay, which was basically just a transport pad fitted into the side of the corridor. Kay was stood on a stool tapping away at the control console and turned as they approached.

‘She didn’t slit your throat while you were sleeping, then?’ he asked casually. ‘These “Romulans” seem like pretty low-calibre enemies.’

‘I’m sure she could have if she’d tried.’ Luz gave Amity a kind smile and the green-haired woman pursed her lips, hoping that her oath from the previous night hadn’t taken away _all_ of her edge in the human’s eyes.

Kay slid a finger up the transport icon on his console, and a fizzle of light appeared above the pad. The particles arranged themselves into the shape of Eda, along with a couple of large crates next to her. When they’d fully materialised, Eda’s frozen form jerked back into life.

‘Tiblet says he wants double for the new parts,’ she said to Luz. ‘Our account will need to be topped up.’

Luz nodded. ‘I’ll send word back to Starfleet. Amity, give me a hand.’

The two younger women took hold of one crate and lifted it off the pad while Eda moved the other.

‘So you’re being funded by Starfleet, dealing with Klingons, in Romulan space?’ Amity asked as they lowered the crate onto the deck.

‘There’s no Klingons on that ship,’ Luz replied.

‘But it’s a Bird of Prey?’

‘Come see for yourself,’ Eda invited. ‘We need an extra pair of hands. Tiblet’s finally letting us in his library.’

‘Really?’ Luz asked excitedly and jumped up onto the pad. She held her hand out to Amity, who pointedly ignored it and stepped onto the pad on her own.

The interior of the freighter disappeared with a shimmer before her eyes, and was replaced with the murky, dim lighting of a Klingon transporter bay. Amity tensed as she looked around, ready for warriors more intimidating-looking than Kay.

But there were no Klingons at all. To her shock, she saw that the figure manning the transporter console was a Ferengi.

‘Ah, I see you have a new face!’ the short, wide-eared alien grinned at her. ‘The Imperial Navy seems to be positively _bleeding_ deserters these days.’

‘She’s not really a deserter,’ Luz said quickly, seeing Amity’s scowl.

‘Yeah, but we’re working on it,’ Eda added. ‘Now Tibbles, you promised us a library.’

As they followed the short man down the grated corridor, Amity glimpsed more of his species bustling about the ship.

‘Why are there Ferengi running a Klingon ship?’ she whispered to Luz.

But Tiblet’s large round ears twitched at her words, and he turned to her. ‘Where are my manners?’ he smiled. ‘Welcome to the _IKV Grimhammer_. Suppliers of goods and services to the needy traveller, all discreetly delivered with the help of a Klingon cloaking device.’

‘Tiblet’s a very useful person to know when you’re an outlaw,’ Eda said. ‘Even if he does cheat at Tongo.’

‘Now, now, Eda,’ Tiblet tutted as he punched in a code to unlock a door. ‘My luck with cards is what helped me acquire this ship, as well as most of the items you’ve bought from me.’

The door slid open, and Amity peered in to see a storage bay full of crates, which were spilling over with both electronic PADDs and physical books.

‘We’re making way in an hour,’ Tiblet declared. ‘You have until then to find what you’re looking for and make a reasonable offer.’ He turned and made his way back down the corridor.

‘Alright girls,’ Eda cracked her knuckles. ‘Let’s get reading.’

‘What are we looking for?’ Amity said, nervously eyeing the expanse of material.

‘The journals of Chancellor L’Rell,’ Luz said as she picked up a volume from the top of a nearby crate. ‘The Captain that Tiblet won this ship from was apparently a bit of a collector, he kept all sorts of Klingon historical oddities.’

‘Yeah, this is where we found Kay,’ Eda called over as she skimmed the covers of books from another crate.

‘L’rell.’ Amity struggled to remember her Klingon history. ‘She was Chancellor in…’

‘…the latter 23rd century,’ Luz finished.

Amity mentally translated the human dating system to Romulan. ‘Why do you want the journals of a Klingon Chancellor from a hundred years ago?’

‘I don’t hear reading,’ Eda called over again, and Luz compliantly went back to running her fingers over the spines of the books in her crate. Once it was clear she wouldn’t get an answer to her question, Amity picked another crate and started to sort through the volumes.

The books piled up on the deck around them as they gradually emptied the large containers. Amity put a PADD aside in her structured system on the floor and looked up at Luz’s untidy heap. The human picked out an electronic tablet from her crate and dropped it to the side without looking at it.

‘You’re not checking the digital ones?’ Amity asked.

‘L’Rell preferred physical writing,’ Luz said, stretching her arm down into her crate to reach the last book.

‘Yeah,’ Amity conceded. ‘But historians will have encoded it at some point.

Luz paused and glanced over at Eda, whose head was poking out from inside her own crate.

‘Hadn’t thought of that,’ the grey-haired woman admitted.

Amity huffed and went over to Luz’s pile. The pair started to sort the physical copies from the digital, checking each tablet as they did so. About halfway through Amity paused in her search, the PADD in her hand displaying the words she’d been looking for.

‘L’Rell!’ she called out. ‘I’ve got it!’

Luz scrambled over to squat next to Amity, putting her own hand on the PADD next to hers.

‘ _The Honorable And Faithful Account of L’Rell, of the houses of T’Kuvma and Mokai!_ ’ Luz turned to grin at Amity and the Romulan smiled back a little awkwardly. The human’s face was very close.

‘You okay?’ Luz asked with a sudden frown. ‘You look a bit… oh.’

‘What?’

‘N-Nothing, I’ve just never actually seen…’ Luz averted her eyes. ‘You’ve got green blood, obviously, cos it’s copper-based, but… “going green” means something different for humans.’


	6. Chapter 6

Amity tapped her fingers on the table agitatedly. After they’d returned from the _Grimhammer_ , the Bird of Prey had cloaked and presumably headed away to another customer in need of black market goods. Kay had given up the conn to Eda again, yawning as he headed back to his quarters, and the grey-haired Captain had brought them to warp, setting a course Amity hadn’t been able to make out. The older Romulan’s attention was fixed on her console, and as Luz had gone to the Engine Room to check on something Amity was being left unguarded. It was quite insulting.

She stood up from her seat and went over to a panel on the wall, pressing a control on it. ‘Computer,’ she said. ‘Bring up record of Klingon Chancellor L’Rell.’

 _‘W-Working,’_ the computer’s voice responded, sounding high and distorted. ‘ _U-Unable to com-comply. Request d-does n-not compute-pute.’_

Amity sighed. ‘Show me any records you have on Klingon history,’ she instructed, adding a tone of threat to her voice just in case it helped.

‘ _W-Working… u-unable to compute-pute.’_

Amity turned to Eda. ‘Your computer core still needs repairing.’

‘Nah, it’s always been like that,’ Eda replied. ‘You can’t go for top end models when you’re on the run. The rest of it works fine, it’s just the voice interface that’s stupid and shrill. I try not to talk to it.’

‘Aww, don’t say that!’ Luz’s voice came from the door as she stepped in. ‘You’ll hurt its feelings.’

‘Sure I will,’ Eda said, rolling her eyes. Luz came over to Amity’s panel and pressed the interface control.

‘Don’t listen to her Putey,’ she said soothingly. ‘I still like you.’

‘ _U-Unable to compute-pute_ ,’ the computer replied.

‘What were you looking for?’ Luz asked Amity. ‘Maybe I can help.’

Amity looked into the Starfleet Officer’s friendly face and felt another surge of uncertain frustration.

‘Look,’ she said. ‘I can’t go back to the Imperial Navy, there’s nothing I can do about that, and now you seem to have decided I’m not a prisoner anymore. But if you’re going to keep me around then I need to know what’s going on.’

Luz’s face held a hesitant look. ‘It’s pretty classified,’ she said.

‘Yeah, I guessed that,’ Amity retorted. ‘You’re a Starfleet Officer working with a bunch of Romulan outlaws looking for Klingon artefacts, I doubt the Federation would openly sanction that kind of operation. But if you’re not going to tell me what you’re up to then just drop me off at the next station or planet and I’ll figure something out from there.'

‘We won’t be passing civilisation any time soon,’ Eda called out from the front of the ship. ‘Where we’re going we’ve got to avoid all populated routes and take the long way round.’

‘Even with your cloak?’ Amity asked. ‘And yeah, what’s with that too? This ship doesn’t look like it should have one at all.’

Luz looked like she was _itching_ to speak, and glanced at Eda. ‘Can I tell her?’ she asked.

Eda looked Amity up and down one last time before shrugging. ‘Hey, it’s your mission kid.’

Luz grinned and typed something into the panel on the wall. The freighter’s engine schematics came up, and Amity ran her eyes over them.

‘What’s a Spore Drive?’ she asked with a frown.

‘It’s a great big secret, that’s what it is!’ Luz said excitedly. ‘It started when I was looking into what my great-great-grandfather did on the _USS_ _Glenn_ during the Klingon war. It was destroyed with all hands aboard, but there was still so little information available that it had to be a cover-up, and when I kept digging I found these engine schematics in an old corrupted datafile. Instead of travelling through normal space, this can jump you through subspace straight to where you want to go!’

Luz’s eyes were bright with wonder at the idea, and Amity felt herself blushing green again at the sight of such enthusiasm.

‘S-so,’ she said, quickly turning her eyes back to the display screen, ‘when we saw you before, you didn’t cloak, you jumped from where you were down to the planet?’ Luz nodded, and Amity looked over to the starfield whizzing past them on the viewscreen. ‘If you’ve got that kind of engine, then why even use warp?’

‘Our last jump fried the system,’ Eda called back, shooting an accusing look back at Amity. ‘ _Someone_ shot our induction coils out.’

‘And then _someone_ saved us,’ Luz reminded Eda, patting a reassuring hand on Amity’s shoulder.

‘But why keep it a secret?’ the Romulan asked, trying to ignore the touch. ‘If the Federation is all about bravely going-‘

‘ _Boldly_ going.’

‘… _boldly_ going to explore new worlds, then why not use something that would help you do that?’

Luz’s smile turned sheepish again. ‘That’s where I’ve hit a dead end. I couldn’t find any mention of this kind of tech being used after the war, even in non-Federation databases. I brought it all to my XO on the _Lutrinae_ , and uh… then I suddenly found myself being sent on a one-way mission to Romulan space.’

‘Oh.’ Amity suddenly felt a pang of sympathy for the other woman. ‘So you were banished?’

Luz shrugged. ‘It’s not so bad. Like I said, I’m all about Romulans, and I’ve had Eda to help me.’

Amity turned to the grey-haired woman in the pilot’s seat. ‘And when did _you_ defect to the Federation?’

‘Eww, I didn’t,’ Eda grimaced. ‘I’m a _deserter_ , not a defector. But I got caught smuggling ale through the Neutral Zone and Starfleet gave me a choice: be handed back to the Empire or do a little off-the-books work for them. Didn’t stop them from confiscating my stash though. Bald men always have such a power complex.’ Eda shook her head at the memory, standing and walking towards the replicator. ‘Now I’m an escort for this idealistic little gremlin,’ she added, ruffling Luz’s hair affectionately as she passed.

‘It’s been more fun than duty shifts and ship concerts,’ the human smiled as she ran a hand through her hair to lift the tufts up again.

‘But wait…’ Amity looked over the information on the display. ‘All this engine stuff, that’s not even your mission here?’

‘No, it’s not.’ Luz lowered her voice conspiratorially. ‘But I’ve had more progress with my theories than ever. Those journals we found include stories from L’Rell’s consort about spore technology, and I’ve even made contact with a source over here.’

‘A source?’ Amity frowned. ‘Didn’t you say everyone who knew about this engine was dead?’

‘Well,’ Luz smiled again. ‘Not _everyone_.’

* * *

Amity stepped into the freighter’s engine room, wrinkling her nose slightly at the oddly damp smell in the air. The engine core was laid horizontally along the deck – another sign of the ship’s age – humming slightly as the quantum singularity inside rippled and twisted. There was a cubicle to the side of the room which looked like a much more recent addition than the aged plating around it, the white interior visibly glowing through its transparent front wall. W’Lo was working at a console near the cubicle and turned as Amity entered.

‘It’s alright,’ Luz said to her quickly, following Amity in. ‘She knows.’

W’Lo shot the other Romulan an irate look before shrugging. ‘Okay,’ she sighed. ‘I guess now if you try to escape we’d _have_ to kill you.’

Amity scowled back before looking the cubicle over. ‘This is where the spores go?’

‘Yeah, we’ve got a cultivation bay for the mushrooms.’ Luz went over to W’Lo and patted her shoulders fondly from behind. ‘This one keeps it all running.’

W’Lo scoffed. ‘Yeah, well, it would be a lot easier if you didn’t expect me to do a jump in the middle of warp.’

‘Do not do yourself such a disservice, W’Lo,’ another voice came from around the back of the cubicle, and a figure walked out from behind it. ‘You managed quite admirably.’

Amity stepped back in surprise. The figure wore a simple grey tunic with matching trousers, and his dark hair was cut in a similarly severe fashion to hers. As he stood holding his hands pensively behind his back, he gave every appearance of being a harmless old man. But even a lowly Sublieutenant like Amity recognised Ambassador Spock.

‘ _He_ was my mission,’ Luz explained. ‘The Ambassador’s been on something of a drive to educate Romulans about Vulcan ideas and-’

‘Yes, I know,’ Amity cut her off. She realised her hand had instinctively gone to her belt and mentally cursed that she didn’t have her disruptor. The Vulcan’s unwavering gaze pierced through her, but Amity glared back at him.

‘Your new friend does not seem to care for me, Ensign,’ Spock said to Luz. ‘I take it you decided to “spring me” upon her?’

‘Uh… yeah,’ Luz said awkwardly as her eyes darted between the pair.

‘Then you have a choice,’ Spock told the green-haired woman staring daggers at him. ‘You can do your duty to the Empire and snuff out this threat to Romulan society. Or, if the immediate consequences of that would be too great a cost to you, you can decide now to tolerate my presence. You must choose one of these options, it is only-’

‘ _Don’t,_ ’ Amity warned.

Spock raised an eyebrow at her tone, but apparently decided to accommodate her.

‘…rational,’ he substituted.

Amity’s blood boiled as she stared down the man she had been taught was an enemy of everything Romulan. Although a Federation historical and political figure for a long time, a few years ago Spock had been revealed to be forming an underground movement of ideological insurgents on Romulus itself, corrupting loyal citizens with poisonous Vulcan teachings. There had been some kind of clash between Romulan and Vulcan ships shortly after his presence had been revealed, and the Imperial media had been characteristically vague about the details of the skirmish. But their message had been clear – Spock was dangerous, and had to be stopped.

Even though it was well-known that Vulcan telepathy only worked through physical touch, Amity still felt like the Ambassador was peering into her very soul. The dispassionate way he was waiting for her to decide whether to try and kill him made her want to do it all the more, but W’Lo’s eyes were on her and the other Romulan had already made it clear that she would vaporise her for less. Amity folded her arms and leant against the wall.

Satisfied, Spock turned back to the cubicle and scanned it with the tricorder in his hand. ‘These replacement coils seem unable to reach the same level of saturation,’ he said to W’Lo. ‘I would recommend increasing spore density.’

‘I can give it a go, but I don’t think they’ll hold,’ W’Lo said.

Amity’s eyes moved from the pair working on the cubicle to Luz, who seemed relaxed despite the recent standoff.

‘Good, isn’t he?’ the human grinned.

Amity huffed. ‘This just proves that he really _is_ part of a Federation plot.’

Luz shook her head. ‘Not really, a lot of people on our side see him as a defector. He’s not even technically an Ambassador anymore, they took the title away.’

Amity tried to read the Starfleet Ensign for signs of deception. If her entire persona of a naïve blabbermouth was a front meant to make Amity let her guard down, it was a performance that would put the Tal Shiar’s top agents to shame.

‘Were you meant to bring him back, then?’ she asked.

‘Nah,’ Luz replied. ‘They tried that once before, and he managed to talk the people they sent into going back and arguing his case for him. He’s just _that_ good.’

‘So why _are_ you here with him?’

‘My presence here is still a problem for the Federation,’ Spock interjected, turning from his work. ‘It makes them more comfortable to have an official observer with me. I strongly resisted at first, as it was hard enough to find any acceptance here even without a Starfleet presence. But when I was made aware that Ensign Noceda was getting close to uncovering certain historical secrets, I saw the value in pairing us together.’

‘Turns out Spock’s the only person alive with first-hand experience of a Spore Drive,’ Luz explained, giving the Vulcan an impertinently accusing look. ‘He still won’t tell me _how,_ because he was on the _Enterprise’s_ original five-year mission of exploration for the whole of the Klingon war.’

Spock shook his head a little at her. ‘I would have hoped, Ensign, that your assignment here would have discouraged rather than encouraged your curiosity in this field.’

‘You’re the one who suggested making one of our own,’ Luz shrugged.

‘The ease of travel does suit my purpose,’ Spock admitted. ‘Travelling to Romulan colonies to spread the idea of reunification used to be an impossible goal.’

‘That’s why the W- why Eda was on Bonsboro,’ Amity said with realisation. ‘She was picking you up.’

‘Yes,’ Spock nodded, ‘and I understand that you played an integral part in our escape. You have my gratitude.’

Amity balked at the thought that, as well as betraying her Commander and her crew, her actions had led to a dangerous revolutionary escaping justice and surviving to spread his subversive message further. Her head began to spin as the weight of her inadvertent treachery made itself tangible once again.

Unable to take the sight of the three enemies of the Empire any longer, she turned and stalked out of the engine room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Google 'Lutrinae' for a hidden joke ;)


	7. Chapter 7

Towards the end of the day shift while the others ate together in the main deck, Amity had taken the food she’d materialised from the replicator and found a corner of the corridor to sit in on her own. She could hear the voices of the others carrying through the bulkhead as they chatted, and the lower timbre of Spock’s voice stood out clearly. Amity tensed further every time she heard him speak, even without being able to make out what he was saying. The Vulcan had managed to manipulate her into standing down in the engine room, and who knew what other ideas he would manage to put in her head if she stayed near him any longer.

After she’d finished eating she went straight back to Luz’s quarters, and when she came out of the sonic shower the human had returned; Amity could make out words on the human’s vest denoting a Starfleet Academy sports team of some kind. The tan-skinned woman was sat on the floor where the blanket had been left from that morning.

‘You okay?’ she asked, that infuriating look of concern back on her face. Amity just grunted in response, and cringed internally to realise she was acting exactly as she used to as a moody child. Luz seemed to realise she shouldn’t follow the line of questioning any further, and straightened the bedding on the floor. ‘I thought we could take turns, just to be fair,’ she said.

Amity felt the twinge that was still in her back, and knew that the frailer human would have a worse time of lying on the deck all night.

‘No, it’s fine,’ she sighed, putting her pride to one side. ‘We can share.’

‘You sure?’ Luz asked.

Amity nodded, glancing grimly at the bed which was still too narrow for her liking.

‘Okay, then I’m gonna wash up.’ Luz stood and handed the other woman a set of soft sleeping garments. ‘You can borrow these if you like.’

Amity nodded gratefully, and waited until the door of the en-suite had closed behind the other woman before changing into them.

After a few minutes the door slid open again and Luz stepped out, one hand over her eyes.

‘You decent?’ she asked.

‘Yes,’ Amity huffed from her position lying on the bed, adding squeamishness to her mental list of human failings. Luz uncovered her eyes, smiled a little nervously, and settled herself on the mattress next to Amity under the blanket.

‘Computer, lights off.’

As the lights faded down and off, Amity stared up at the ceiling, running through the information she’d learned that day – Spock was acting independently in his crusade to spread Vulcan ideology and also had secret knowledge of an instantaneous-travel propulsion engine, knowledge that the Federation seemed to want to let die out rather than utilise. But as her thoughts began to whirl confusingly she pushed them out of her head – every answer she got seemed to come with two more questions attached. Formulating a mental report was pointless; she was never going to be able to recount it to anyone. She turned over onto her side.

Luz was staring right at her, poorly disguised curiosity in her face.

Amity flinched back, and grouchily rolled over onto her other side to face away from the human. After a few seconds she heard the other woman do the same, followed by a moment of silence.

‘What happened between you and W’Lo?’ Luz asked.

Amity stiffened. ‘What has she told you?’

‘Nothing. She won’t talk about it. But you two obviously know each other.’

‘We grew up in the same province,’ Amity confirmed. ‘I joined the Imperial Academy and she went to the Botanical Science College. When I went back to visit just before graduation… I saw some Vulcan texts in her family’s house.’

‘We rescued her and her dads from a labor camp,’ Luz said quietly. ‘Spock knew a lot of the Romulans being imprisoned there. They’d all been reported as part of his movement.’

The human fell silent, and from her previous tone Amity knew it hadn’t been because she’d dropped off to sleep. She resisted the urge to try and justify her actions – why should she? She didn’t have to defend the Romulan justice system to this Starfleet infiltrator. Her suspicions about the Paak family being part of the underground movement had turned out to be correct, proving that she had done the right thing in informing on them. So why was she now feeling a guilty ache in her stomach? She hugged her arms to herself, trying to physically suppress the feeling, but the ache remained where it was.

‘What’s Romulus like?’ Luz’s voice came again.

Amity felt slight relief, and answered before her mind could delve any further into why she cared that her bedfellow was still talking to her. ‘Warm. Clammy. I’ve never been on a ship that’s gotten the humidity quite right. …What’s Earth like?’

‘Depends where you go,’ Luz replied. ‘We’ve got deserts, oceans, tundras, forests. I always knew I wanted to be in Starfleet, so my Mom took me to visit everywhere on the planet she could while I was growing up. She wanted me to know my home before I travelled to other worlds.’

Amity allowed the smile on her face to stay. ‘You must have a lot of good memories. My parents are both senators, they never took us travelling.’

‘Us?’

‘Me, and my brother and sister. They went to the Imperial Academy before me. I always wanted to be like them, but I could never-’

Amity stopped as she realised just how personal she was getting. The human seemed to note the discomfort and tactfully took over the conversation.

‘My Mom’s back at Starfleet Medical. They give her updates whenever I check in, which is good. She always knew me being posted to a ship meant potentially facing danger, but I don’t think this is what she expected. …I’m sorry for bringing you back here. I know it’s my fault you can’t go home now.’

Amity let out another sigh. ‘No, it’s okay,’ she said as she imagined what Boscha would have done if she’d been the one to find her, injured and alone. ‘You did the right thing.’

The silence between them was now a little more comfortable, and as Amity began to drop off, she considered how much of a similar position she and the other woman in the bed were both in.

* * *

Half a dozen or so hours later, Amity awoke. The tightness in her stomach had returned, and she searched her thoughts to see if she’d been dreaming about W’Lo.

But then she realised the tightness wasn’t _inside_ her stomach. Luz’s arm was wrapped around her waist.

Amity listened to the quiet snores that were fluttering against the back of her neck; the human must have snuggled up to her in her sleep. The Romulan felt the comforting weight of the arm loosely holding her, the instinctive, unconscious affection of the embrace warming her more than the blanket that covered them both. Amity kept her breathing steady, careful not to move unless she woke the other woman. After some time she felt the human’s body shift, and then suddenly tense. Amity kept her own body limp and continued breathing in a slow rhythm, doing a much better job of pretending to be asleep this time as the arm was carefully retracted. She felt Luz gently stand up from the bed and quietly walk into the en-suite.

* * *

After Amity had finished her own session in the washroom, she came out to see Luz gone from the room already. She dressed herself, glancing briefly at where her tunic with its squared shoulders lay forgotten on the floor among Luz’s belongings. Then she approached the door and cautiously tapped at the control – it opened smoothly.

She found Luz back in the main deck – wearing a red and black uniform today – sat with some of the other crew around what looked like a small sculpture positioned on the centre of the table. The sculpture was made up of short silver straws, all balancing on each other to make a chaotic swirl of angles and spikes. Luz looked up and smiled brightly as Amity entered.

‘Morning!’ she said.

Amity glanced at where Spock sat at the head of the table and grunted sullenly before going to the replicator. She noticed Luz’s head turn to follow her out of the corner of her eye as she punched in the command to summon a glass of cold tea.

‘Do you want to join us?’ Luz invited. ‘Spock’s teaching us a Vulcan game called Kal-Toh. It’s fun!’

‘It is _not_ fun,’ Spock corrected.

‘Oh yeah, sorry.’ The human looked down at the small pile of sticks in front of her and lifted one. She squinted at the cluster in the centre of the table as she chose a spot and carefully dropped her piece into place. The whole cluster shifted, rearranging itself slightly, but when it was done it didn’t look any more or less muddled than it had before.

Amity watched Luz raise her eyes to Spock inquisitively to see how she’d done, but the Vulcan’s face was impenetrable. He simply turned to W’Lo, who was spinning her own stick around in her fingers thoughtfully. She exhaled slowly, closed her eyes, and without opening them smoothly reached out to position her piece in the structure.

The spiky knot rearranged itself again, but this time a shape began to appear – an angular ring made up of many sides, giving the remaining clustered sticks a form to order themselves around. Luz gave out a supportive whoop, and Spock nodded with satisfaction.

‘Well done,’ he said. ‘You are displaying much greater internal control.’

‘Thank you,’ W’Lo acknowledged, keeping her face straight. But then she caught Luz’s eye and broke out into a pleased grin.

‘So these sticks,’ Kay frowned as he swung one in his hand experimentally. ‘They go under the loser’s fingernails, or into their eyes, or…?’

‘Remember Emperor,’ Spock replied courteously. ‘The _inner_ battlefield-’

‘Yeah, yeah, I know,’ Kay nodded. ‘The war for self-control is the greatest war of all.’

He lazily tossed his stick into the cluster, and it shifted to become disordered again. But Kay lifted his arms triumphantly.

‘Ha!’ he crowed. ‘Look, it’s a knife!’ He pointed into the shapeless mass of straws, but faltered when he looked at the other’s puzzled faces. ‘Y-You guys see it too, right?’

Amity watched the others chatter as they continued the game. Despite Spock’s unnerving Vulcan stillness, the others seemed so relaxed around him. She gave a pointed huff, and went to sit with Eda at the front of the ship.

‘How can you stand to have him around?’ she asked.

‘What do you mean?’ Eda frowned.

‘I know W’Lo’s a Vulcan fancier, but you don’t seem very… you know… _logical._ ’

Eda laughed a little at the contemptuous tone with which Amity had said the last word. ‘Oh boy, the Academy instructors got you good, didn’t they?’ She pressed a control to set the freighter to autopilot and turned her chair to face Amity. ‘The Federation aren’t _bad._ They’re a bunch of dorks, sure, and Vulcans are the dorkiest of all of them, but they’re just other people. We all get told that they’re incompetent and shouldn’t be in charge of anything and that it’s our duty to eventually take them over for the good of the galaxy. But when you look outside the Empire’s propaganda, you see there are other ways of doing things that work.’

Amity looked into the other woman’s eyes. She didn’t _look_ brainwashed. In fact she seemed more self-possessed than most other Romulans she’d ever met, who would mostly voice the same beliefs during conversation. She’d always thought it gave their society a unified strength, but now Amity wondered how many of those people repeating the opinions of the apparent majority had just been trying not to seem like a dissident. _After all_ , she thought as she glanced over at W’Lo, _they all knew what happened to dissidents._

‘Is that why you deserted?’ Amity asked Eda. ‘Because you saw something better than the Empire?’

Eda’s expression suddenly changed to a guarded one, and she turned back to her controls. ‘No,’ she said quietly. ‘It was… something else.’

But before Amity could press her further, a beeping alarm started to sound and Eda leant over to the other console to check a flashing icon.

‘We’re leaking plasma again,’ she called out.

W’Lo groaned with frustration and they all stood up from the table, but Spock paused before following the others out of the deck.

‘Sublieutenant,’ he said, turning back to Amity. ‘It would be of great use to have someone familiar with Romulan systems to assist us.’

Amity grimaced a little, but it felt wrong to just sit around the ship when there was work to be done. She stood up and strode down the deck, walking quickly past the Vulcan who was still waiting by the door.

* * *

She tapped at the controls of the engineering console. She’d avoided the unfamiliar Spore Drive systems, which W’Lo and Spock were working on, and was currently trying to get the numbers on her readout to balance. Spock finished his task and came over to the console next to Amity, studying its display thoughtfully.

Amity sighed. ‘Go on, then.’

‘I beg your pardon?’ Spock asked, glancing up at her.

‘Give it a go. Try and talk me into joining your little cult.’

Spock returned his eyes to his console’s readout. ‘I have no interest in promoting my culture to those that do not wish to share in it.’

Amity frowned. ‘Then what are you even doing here?’

‘I originally travelled to Romulus because there was already a movement of people there who wanted to learn Vulcan ways. But whilst I personally believe that reunification of our two worlds would be of benefit to both, I have lived long enough to learn that no philosophy is ever universally agreed-upon. Refusal to accept this invariably leads to despotism.’

Amity watched the Ambassador continue to scan his eyes over the display in front of him. As much as she could read him, he seemed sincere.

‘Good,’ she said, looking back down to continue her own work.

‘However,’ Spock continued, ‘I am surprised that such a staunchly loyal Romulan citizen would look outside of the Empire for attachment.’

‘What attachment?’ Amity scoffed. She certainly didn’t _want_ to be here.

‘Your attraction to Ensign Noceda.’

Amity’s head whipped round to stare at the Vulcan. She felt like spitting out something hateful, but knew nothing she could say would break his composure.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she said with forced calm, bringing her eyes back down to her console. She felt Spock’s gaze remain on her for a moment before he spoke again.

‘Then I was mistaken, and I apologise for the error.’

Amity heard his footsteps head back towards the spore chamber. She glanced up across the room at Luz, who was lying under the engine core buzzing a tool against an open panel. The human put the tool between her teeth to free both of her hands to rewire something, squinting one eye shut as she worked.

Amity quickly lowered her head again as a burn spread over her cheeks. She forced herself to focus on the numbers in front of her, and by the time she had fully balanced them her face was presentable again.

‘Levels are back to normal,’ she announced.

‘Okay,’ W’Lo nodded. ‘We’d better do a test run with the chamber to check for overlap.’

She went to a set of handles in the bulkhead, twisted one, and pulled at it to bring a canister out of the wall. Amity saw small, glowing points of light floating inside as W’Lo carried it over to the console that was attached to the spore chamber, and plugged the canister into a socket underneath it. The bright spores were sucked out of the canister down a tube that led into the chamber, and soon the small cubicle was filled with drifting, star-like particles.

Amity couldn’t help but stare in wonder at the beautiful sight, following the different spores as they wafted along. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Luz come and stand next to her, and glanced over to see the human grinning at her.

‘It’s…’ Amity struggled to find the words.

‘I know,’ Luz nodded, before turning to savour the sight for herself. ‘It’s like magic.’


	8. Chapter 8

That night Amity sat on the edge of Luz’s bed, tapping her foot on the floor. After changing, the human had gone to check on some system or other she’d left running, leaving Amity alone to dwell on her thoughts. What would happen tonight? Would Luz sleepily cuddle up to her again? Did she _want_ that to happen? What if she did something in _her_ sleep? And, the most terrifying possibility, what if she couldn’t resist doing something while awake?

The door opened and Amity’s head bolted up as Luz came in, yawning.

‘Okay, budge up,’ the human said as she approached the bed.

But Amity stood and went over to lie on her previous patch on the floor.

‘What are you doing?’ Luz asked.

‘I changed my mind,’ Amity said, rolling over to face away from her. ‘I can’t sleep in the same bed as someone else. It’s too weird.’ There was a pause and Amity relaxed, glad that the other woman wasn’t putting up an argument.

But then she heard a weight hit the deck next to her. Amity turned her head and felt a panic run through her as she saw Luz’s face smiling dopily back at her.

‘I said I didn’t want to sleep next to someone!’ she snapped.

‘Well, I’m staying down here,’ Luz replied firmly. ‘If you want to sleep alone, you’ll have to take the bed.’

Amity felt a flush of anger. She refused to sleep on a soft mattress while Luz– while someone else had to lie on the deck, _especially_ a weak human with weak muscles that would twist themselves easily.

_Although she did manage to carry me back to her ship._

The intruding thought made a different feeling suddenly course through her, and Amity quickly sprang to her feet, grabbing her tunic from the floor.

‘You’re impossible,’ she huffed. ‘I’ll find somewhere else.’ She hurried out the door, determined not to look back at the human’s face; whichever expression it held, it would just make the frustration inside her grow.

She stalked down the corridor, swinging the tunic in her hand agitatedly. The bio-bed in the sickbay was still in pieces, but maybe she could line them up enough that it wouldn’t be _too_ uncomfortable. But as the door to the main deck opened before her, she froze as she saw W’Lo stood at the replicator. The other Romulan’s eyes met hers, and they stared at each other for a moment.

Then Amity broke the eye contact and went over to sit at one of the seats around the table, folding her arms and staring ahead towards the starscape on the viewscreen. She heard W’Lo finish typing in her request and there was a hum from the replicator. Then, to Amity’s annoyance, the other woman came and sat across the table from her.

‘I wanted to be alone,’ Amity huffed.

‘It’s not your ship,’ W’Lo retorted, and took a sip of her drink. ‘Why did you do it?’ she asked. ‘We used to be friends. Why would you turn me and my Dads in?’

Amity felt her stomach tighten further. This was the last thing she needed right now.

‘I was just following the law,’ she replied, still not looking over. ‘You were the ones breaking it.’

‘But we weren’t hurting anyone.’

‘Other people would have picked up Vulcan ideas from you, and it would have spread.’

‘Okay, so what?’

Amity finally met W’Lo’s eyes and saw that the question was genuine. She spluttered a little at its absurdity.

‘So… it corrupts people!’

‘But what does that _mean_?’

Amity shook her head in disbelief, but couldn’t find the words to explain why diverting from Romulan culture was just _wrong_.

W’Lo let the pause linger before continuing. ‘So people learn about a new idea, what’s wrong with that? It doesn’t even mean they’ll agree with it.’

‘Look, I was about to graduate and become an Officer. It was my duty to report a crime if I saw it. I’m not the one who has to justify the law, I don’t make it.’

‘No, Senators make the law, don’t they?’

Amity’s eyes widened and W’Lo nodded.

‘Yeah, did you think we didn’t know about that? The Cultural Protection Act, specifically drafted by Senators Alador and Odalia Blight to root out members of the Vulcan Underground. Do you know how many families I saw in that camp? How many I saw have their children taken away from them?’

‘I didn’t know that's what would happen!’ Amity snapped, standing from her chair and turning away.

‘No, you didn’t _want_ to know!’ W’Lo standing too, her voice rising. ‘You don’t have to care about the people the law punishes, you just carry it out!’

‘ALRIGHT ENOUGH!’

The two women looked over from their spat as Kay spun the pilot’s seat around to face them.

‘W’Lo?’ the small Klingon scolded. ‘Is this how we resolve things?’

W’Lo took a breath and shook her head.

‘I didn’t think so.’ Kay hopped off his seat. ‘Now you two stay right here, I’m gonna get my conflict resolution kit.’

He scurried out of the room and the two Romulans were left with a tense silence between them.

‘I really thought we were friends,’ W’Lo eventually said, quieter now. ‘But you got me and my family arrested just to score points in your career.’

‘No, it wasn’t like that,’ Amity protested. She sighed and sat down again. ‘I really didn’t want to do it. I thought I was making a sacrifice by turning you in.’

W’Lo scoffed. ‘Yeah, it must have been really hard on you.’

‘It was!’ Amity held W’Lo’s gaze until the other woman recognised the sincerity in her eyes. ‘I know it hurt you more, obviously. But it really did hurt me too.’ Amity looked away and heard W’Lo take her seat again. ‘You’re right,’ she continued. ‘Maybe I should have tried harder to see what was going on. I’m having to rethink a lot of things now, and I know it’s too late but… I’m sorry.’

She risked a glance up, and saw surprise in W’Lo’s eyes before they quickly darted away.

‘I’m glad you got out of there,’ Amity added. ‘Are your Dads…?’

‘Yeah, they’re okay,’ W’Lo replied. ‘They stayed with the colonists on Bonsboro.’

Amity nodded. The two women sat in silence until the door opened again and Kay came back in with two Bat’Leths, which looked huge as he carried them over his shoulders.

‘Alrighty,’ he said as he dropped the Klingon swords to the floor with a clatter. ‘These should bring this conflict to a pretty quick resolution.’

He looked up at them expectantly, but W’Lo picked up her drink from the table and went over to the door. She paused before walking through it.

‘I’m glad you got out too,’ she said, before leaving.

* * *

The soft beeps and hums of the ships controls were hypnotic, combining with the now-dim lights to soothe Amity towards sleep. She was leaning back in one of the seats around the table with her feet up on another, her tunic spread out over her torso. But each time she started to drift off, some thought or memory of the arguments she’d had that evening kept springing up and she would feel a spike of adrenalin in her chest. She folded her arms against herself and turned her head, trying to get the most out of the thin padding on the seat’s back.

Then she noticed something flashing on one of the wall displays. Amity squinted through the gloom and made out two words blinking against the black panel:

“YOU AWAKE?”

She glanced forward at Kay, who was focused on the pilot’s console. She sighed; sleep kept eluding her anyway, so she stood and went over to press a button on the panel.

‘Hello?’ she asked.

‘Hey, it’s Luz,’ the human’s voice sounded out quietly from the panel’s hidden speakers.

‘Hi,’ Amity nodded, unsurprised.

‘I wired in through the displays, I thought you’d probably be in there but I didn’t know if you were asleep so I didn’t want to use the comms-’

‘It’s alright’ Amity replied softly, cutting off the human’s nervous rambling. ‘What’s up?’

‘I’m sorry about before with the bed, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I’ll ask if any of the others can share so we can free up some quarters for you.’

‘Thank you. I’m sorry too, I shouldn’t have snapped at you. You’ve been very good to me.’

‘That’s okay!’ Luz’s voice sounded relieved, and Amity felt herself relaxing too. She waited to see if there was anything else, but as the pause went on she realised the other woman must still be awake for the same reason she was.

‘You can still use my sonic shower until we sort you out,’ Luz offered.

‘Thanks,’ Amity acknowledged, and felt her eyes begin to droop again. ‘I’ll speak to you in the morning. Sleep well.’

‘Okay, you too!’ Luz replied, the cheer back in her voice. After the comm line was shut off, Amity went and repositioned herself back in her chair. This time she dropped off almost immediately.

* * *

Spock had offered to pair up with Kay in his quarters, having the fewest belongings to move and being on a different sleep schedule to the night-shift pilot. He hadn’t said as much, but Amity reluctantly admitted to herself that it was the _logical_ choice. Spock’s room had still smelled faintly of incense when Amity had come in for the first time, a sharp but not unpleasant scent, and she guessed that he must have burned it in his meditations. She had laid back on the mattress, grateful to finally be able to stretch herself out comfortably, and stared up at the ceiling. She knew that getting her own room here was a statement, admitting that she’d accepted her situation on this ship with this crew. And that she’d been accepted by them.

Being around W’Lo had gotten a lot easier since their conversation, and the dark-haired Romulan had offered to show her how the Spore Drive operated. Amity was stood in the engine room looking over W’Lo’s shoulder as she and Spock continued their repairs.

‘So you still use power from the engine core?’

W’Lo nodded. ‘That’s right.’

Amity looked over the schematics on PADD in her hand. ‘What’s this interface it’s talking about?’

‘That’s me.’ W’Lo smiled at Amity’s confused expression and rolled up her sleeve; she had a synthetic plate imbedded in her forearm, and slid a panel on it up to reveal a couple of small sockets. ‘The subspace network we fly through is so complex that the best processing unit for all the information is a living brain.’

‘Oh.’ Amity studied the plate on W’Lo’s arm. ‘Is it… safe?’

‘We had to do a couple of workarounds to fit with Romulan biology, but we’ve not had any problems yet.’

Amity eyed W’Lo’s casual expression and turned to Spock. ‘And you know it’s not gonna damage her, right?’

‘I was not a crew member on the ship I observed using this propulsion system,’ Spock admitted. ‘But the individual who interfaced with it there did not appear to suffer from any side-effects. Apart, perhaps, from a certain pompousness.’

‘You only _observed_ it?’ Amity gave W’Lo a wary glance, but the other Romulan didn’t seem worried.

‘If the only source we have for this thing is a Vulcan’s observation, I’d say that’s pretty good,’ she reassured her.

‘Do not be concerned, Sublieutenant,’ Spock said. ‘I had plenty of opportunity to witness the Displacement Activated Spore Hub Drive in operation. We DASHD across the quadrant many times.’

He went over to examine the engine core, and Amity turned to give W’Lo a confused look.

‘Was… was he trying to be _funny?_ ’

W’Lo grimaced. ‘Well it was a pun, so he failed.’

* * *

They’d finally managed to affix the pieces of the bio-bed in the sickbay back together, and Amity rocked it slightly with her hand, testing its steadiness. Luz clambered up from where she’d been squatting down on the floor affixing the final joints.

‘Now you can feel free to get as injured as you like,’ she quipped.

Amity chuckled, but her smile faded as Luz started to walk out of the doorway. ‘Luz? Have you got a second?’

‘Sure!’ The human turned in the doorway, and Amity glanced furtively past her.

‘It’s kind of personal.’

‘Oh, okay.’ Luz came back into the sickbay, and they stepped into a corner out of the view of the other crew members in the main deck. Amity fidgeted, glancing up at Luz, and her confidence wavered a little under the open, friendly stare of the other woman’s brown eyes.

‘You’ve been very kind to me ever since I got here,’ she began, ‘and I totally understand if you wouldn’t want to…’ She trailed off, struggling to bring herself to say what had been on her mind since she’d moved into her own room.

‘What is it?’ Luz prompted gently.

Amity took a breath and reluctantly went on. ‘I can’t keep putting the same clothes through the fabric refresher, and… I think we’re about the same size.’

It took Luz a second to realise what Amity was asking of her, but when she did her eyes widened with glee and she put both hands to her mouth.

‘Oh my God, yes, _of course_ you can borrow one! Do you want red, blue or gold? Don’t answer that, you’re trying on all of them.’

Luz grabbed Amity’s hand and pulled her out of the room. But they stopped in the doorway – Spock and Eda were sat at the deck’s table, and had quickly turned their heads away from where they’d both been peering over at the sickbay.

Amity pulled her hand out of Luz’s. ‘What are you looking at?’ she asked.

‘Nothing,’ Eda replied innocently.

‘We are simply playing a game of Kal-Toh,’ Spock added, equally innocently.

The pair seated at the table watched the other two walk out of the room, and when they had gone Spock looked back over at Eda.

‘ _For this alliance may so happy prove, to turn your household’s rancour to pure love,_ ’ he quoted.

‘Is that from something?’ Eda asked.

Spock nodded as he placed his Kal-Toh stick into the cluster between them. ‘An Earth play by one of its most celebrated authors, following two lovers from opposing sides of an old and bloody feud.’

‘Ah,’ Eda nodded, dropping her own piece into place. ‘This human author… they do any ones about Freighter Captains and their fugitive passenger?’

Spock raised an eyebrow at Eda’s amorous expression. ‘I do not recall that he did,’ he replied.

Eda shrugged. ‘Shame.’

‘…Eda, I am a one hundred and forty year-old Vulcan. Perhaps you should be rubbing your foot against someone else’s leg.’

‘I’ve heard you’re half human,’ Eda countered. ‘Doesn’t that side ever keep you awake during lonely nights?’

‘I _am_ half human,’ Spock confirmed. ‘But decades of rigorous discipline mean that all of my emotions are buried deep in an inaccessible inner layer.’ He dropped his own Kal-Toh stick into place.

The entire structure of sticks collapsed, scattering across the table. Spock looked over the debris before glancing up at Eda’s sly grin.

‘Oh _are_ they?’ she smirked, keeping her eyes fixed on him as she took a sip from her cup.


	9. Chapter 9

Amity grimaced a little at her reflection in the washroom mirror. Although it had been lovely to have Luz fawn over her when she’d tried on the human’s different uniforms, she couldn’t now bring herself to display the Starfleet colours on her shoulders. She'd tied the arms of the jumpsuit around her waist, leaving the purple-grey turtleneck underlayer to cover her torso. She felt that same dissonance that she’d used to have on the _Infensus_ whenever she caught sight of her reflection while out of uniform. She put on as emotionless expression as she could – in this Federation getup and with her smooth forehead, she could be mistaken for a Vulcan, those taciturn cousins of Romulus left behind millennia ago.

Amity had been taught that the Vulcan abhorrence of emotion was a sign of their arrested development as a species; they’d chosen to spend the centuries navel-gazing and now needed the support of others to have a place on the galactic stage. They’d wasted an inexcusable amount of energy repressing the fire that burned at the hearts of both their races, whereas Romulans had tamed that fire and wielded it to form a great Empire. But now Amity was beginning to see how the force that the Empire used wasn’t evidence of their control – it was a symptom of their desperation to keep it. Maybe their authoritarianism was just as much an attempt to keep a hold on that inner flame as the Vulcan’s self-restraints were. Amity had never met a Vulcan before Spock, but now she could appreciate how similar their species were; maybe that’s what the Empire had been trying to hide.

When she entered the main deck again, tugging at the fabric that reached up her neck, Luz, W’Lo and Spock were sat at the table again with PADDs spread out between them. Luz looked up and gazed happily at her, putting a hand to her chest admiringly. Amity couldn’t stop the shy smile from escaping her lips, and went over to the table. Glancing over W’Lo’s shoulder, she frowned in recognition at the diagram of fingers touching.

‘That’s the Oath of Ga’Sharr,’ she said, looking up at Luz. ‘You know, the thing we did.’

Luz suddenly had to choke back an embarrassed giggle, and Amity looked to Spock with confusion. The Vulcan had raised _both_ his eyebrows.

‘That is a Vulcan kiss,’ he explained. ‘The gesture may have survived on Romulus with a different meaning, but it originated as a display of affection.’

‘Touch-telepaths,’ W’Lo clarified to Amity in a whisper. ‘Any physical contact is pretty intimate.’

‘Yeah,’ Luz grinned. ‘We were basically making out.’

Amity let out a spluttering laugh, much louder and more high-pitched than the casual chuckle she’d intended for it to be. She glanced around at the others as she continued before quickly forcing the laugh back, lowering her eyes back down to W’Lo’s PADD. Then after a few more seconds’ hesitation, Amity took a seat at the table.

‘I want to know,’ she said, looking around at the surprised expressions on the faces around her. ‘Can you show me? I want to know about these strangers like me.’

W’Lo eyed her for a second. Then she smiled, and tilted her PADD for Amity to share with her.

* * *

For the next couple of days Amity joined their sessions going over Vulcan language, literature and art. She got familiar glimpses of understanding from each cultural nugget they examined, making the once distant-seeming desert planet feel closer – she learned, for instance, that Azura was originally the Vulcan goddess of Peace. Luz would point out alphabetical similarities and parallel literary tropes; Amity recognised them too but didn’t make any effort to stop the human’s excited info-dumping. More than once she caught herself with a slightly idiotic smile on her face as she watched Luz gesture enthusiastically over theories about which ‘native’ Romulan flora had been brought over from Vulcan after the Divergence. And after her initial relief at having her own quarters again, Amity had realised she was beginning to miss the other woman’s presence at night.

Occasionally Eda or Kay would show a passing interest in Spock’s lessons, and when Eda offered to teach the Vulcan a Romulan waltz, Luz had immediately expanded the idea into plans for a party. She managed to program the lights in the engine room to change colours, and once music was playing over the comm system Willow released spores out of the chamber to float around them.

Although still remaining dignified, Spock kept up quite well with the flourishes Eda added to the traditional waltz. Luz had pulled Amity up onto the space they had cleared, and the human was laughing happily as the pair moved quickly in time with the music. Amity was giggling too, partly at the tickle of the spores she would occasionally feel on her skin, and partly at the sensation of Luz’s hand on her waist. When the piece of music came to an end and a slower ballad started playing, Amity heard Eda playfully scold Spock about something as the older pair left the floor. But although she and Luz’s movements had slowed to a sway, neither of them had let go of each other.

Amity was keeping eye contact with the nervously smiling human, and started to feel her own nerves flutter as the opportunity to break away fell further and further behind them. She felt a growing need to do something, make some kind of declaration, either to pull away, or…

Even with her heart rising higher and higher in her chest, Amity still couldn’t look away from Luz’s eyes. Whatever she was going to do, she wasn't going to let go of her.

Finally, unable to bear the prolonged eye contact any longer, she leant forward and rested her head on Luz’s shoulder. She felt the human’s hands move up her back to hold her close, and she sunk herself against the other woman, letting the warmth of Luz’s body meet that of her own.

She spotted W’Lo stood with Kay, ostensibly listening to him rant on about something. But the other Romulan was giving Amity a knowing smirk, and winked when their eyes met. Amity felt her cheeks start to burn again, and buried her face in Luz’s shoulder to hide them.

The pair continued to sway together amongst the glowing spores, which reflected the multi-coloured lights in a pointillist rainbow.

* * *

‘Eda, you are being facetious.’

‘No Spock, I’m _sure_ this is the Vulcan salute. Is it on this hand, or is it this hand? Or is it both? Oh, Amity!’

Eda lowered her middle fingers from in front of Spock’s face and turned to the green-haired woman who had just entered the deck. The younger Romulan compliantly came over to the pilot’s seats where the other two were sat.

‘We’re about to head through a protection grid,’ Eda explained to her. ‘It’s unmanned, so no danger, but we have to provide authorisation codes and yours will be more up to date than mine.’

Amity glanced over at the readings. ‘The Neutral Zone? I thought we were going to another Romulan colony.’

‘I have a matter to attend to in Federation space,' Spock explained. ‘I had hoped to get the Spore Drive operational by now, but we will have to cross the Neutral Zone at warp. I will provide the necessary codes for the other side.’

‘Can’t it wait until we fix the drive?’ Amity asked. Even with Spock on board, she didn’t like the idea of having to face a Federation interrogation if they were caught.

‘It cannot,’ Spock said firmly.

‘Don’t worry kid, we’ll be in and out,’ Eda said. ‘I’ve gone way further into Federation space than we’re going today.’

‘I thought you only smuggled things across the Zone?’ Amity frowned.

Eda tensed suddenly, but quickly shook it off and stood up from the pilot’s seat. ‘Look,’ she said, ‘it’s so easy I’m gonna let you fly us through. I’ve gotta go deal with a little brown alert I’ve got going on.’

The grey-haired Romulan headed off towards one of the doors and Amity shared a look with Spock before she took the now-vacant seat.

‘Do you know what Eda's story is?’ she asked as she typed the necessary codes into the console. The older woman didn’t seem to want to talk about her past, but Amity’s curiosity was outweighing her courtesy.

‘She was a member of her sister’s crew,’ Spock replied, ‘but she disobeyed a direct order. Commander L’Leth pardoned her actions, but Eda deserted soon afterwards.’

‘She served on the _Infensus_?’ Amity asked surprised.

‘Yes,’ Spock nodded. ‘As tactical officer, in fact, just as you did. An odd, but perhaps meaningful coincidence that you should follow her path so exactly.’

‘I’m still new to Vulcan culture,’ Amity said as she flew them on, ‘but I didn’t think you’d believe in fate.’

Spock shook his head. ‘Quite the opposite. I believe that we should take hold of opportunities when they present themselves, because they may not come again.’

Amity withered a little under his pointed look. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked, knowing exactly what he meant.

‘I mean that a union between two worlds is precisely what I am trying to achieve,’ he replied. ‘And if it can happen even between a pair from realms that do not already share a common heritage, then it would give me greater hope for my own cause.’

Amity continued to pilot the _Light_ across the Neutral Zone, unable to think of a response. When they eventually got to the other side, Spock took over the controls and she watched him thoughtfully as he entered his Federation access code.

‘When I first got here,’ she asked, ‘did you know who I was? Who my parents were?’

Spock nodded again as he worked the controls. ‘The Cultural Protection Act was indeed a blow for our movement. But I know from experience the different paths a parent and child may choose. I had a strained relationship with my own father growing up.’

Amity thought back to the moments of support she and her brother and sister would give each other during the tenser times in their household. It hadn’t been much, but it had been a kindness she’d sorely missed after they had both left to join the Imperial Academy.

‘Did you have any siblings?’ she asked.

Spock’s fingers paused over the controls, and he seemed suddenly distracted by a thought. ‘I did,’ he replied quietly. Then the moment passed and he continued to work the console. ‘But now I am the last living member of my family.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Amity said. ‘What happened to them?’

Spock continued to type at the controls silently, and for a moment Amity wondered if she’d overstepped a boundary.

‘Sybok was eaten by God,’ he eventually replied.

‘O-Oh.’ Amity had no idea what else she could say, but knew she couldn’t leave it at that. ‘That’s rough, buddy,’ she added lamely.

They sat in silence until Spock brought them out of warp and flew them into orbit over a planet. The blues and greens of its surface reminded Amity of the oceans and rainforests of Romulus that had given her such a sense of wonder the first time she had seen her home world from space. As she looked at the gently rotating sphere, she heard footsteps come up behind her.

‘I can’t wait to get some real fresh air,’ Luz said as she joined them. ‘That is, if you don’t mind,’ she added quickly to Spock.

‘No, I do not,’ the Vulcan replied. ‘You may accompany me to the surface. Although,’ he added, looking to Amity again, ‘I would recommend full uniform as a precaution.’

The Romulan glanced down at where the torso of her Starfleet jumpsuit was still tied around her waist and sighed, but gave him a nod and stood from her seat to go back into the main area of the deck. As she pulled her arms through the sleeves and tugged the blue shoulders into place, she caught Luz eyeing her with a besotted expression.

‘Shut up,’ Amity said through an embarrassed smile. Then she lowered her voice as the human came over. ‘What are we doing here?’

‘I’m not really sure,’ Luz admitted. ‘Eda wasn’t meant to come pick us up from Bonsboro for another couple of weeks, but then Spock got a message and said we had come here straight away.’

Amity frowned. ‘What would make him drop his whole reunification cause and come back to Federation space?’

‘I dunno,’ Luz replied. ‘I’d never heard of this planet before, it’s not even inhabited. As far as I know there’s nothing special about Veridian III.’

* * *

A rust-coloured landscape shimmered into view in front of Amity’s eyes. Although most of the surface had seemed green and lush from space, the part of the planet they had been transported to was a barren, rocky desert. She, Luz, Spock and Eda were stood on a high point of a bare hilltop and Amity spotted a few metal gantries and walkways built into the rock around them. A single, lean tree with outreaching branches topped a tall outcrop in front of them, and Spock’s eyes were fixed upon it.

‘I ask that you allow me to be conduct my business alone,’ he said to the others. ‘I will advise when I am ready to leave.’

But the Vulcan remained stood with them for a moment longer. Amity looked over at him, and was astonished to see sadness in his eyes. After a few more quiet seconds, he walked forward and went up to the top of the outcrop. Amity watched him kneel by the tree in front of a low, carefully arranged mound of rocks.

‘Come on,’ Eda prompted quietly. ‘Let’s take a look around.’ They turned to leave Spock in peace.

But they froze at the sight of the two uniformed Romulans stood behind them pointing their disruptors.

‘Greetings, Ambassador,’ Commander L’Leth called up to Spock with a smirk. ‘I _thought_ the grave of James Kirk would bring you out of hiding.’


	10. Chapter 10

Amity stared, horrified, at the sight of Commander L’Leth and Boscha training their disruptors on her. She glanced down at the blue-and-black Starfleet uniform she was wearing and felt an instinctive surge of panic.

‘Hello Lily,’ Eda said harshly. ‘Still stooping as low as ever, I see.’

‘You know how far I'm willing to go to do my duty, E’Dalyn,’ L’Leth retorted.

‘Yes, it’s been a while since we were both on this side of the Neutral Zone.’ Eda was fixing her sister with a look that Amity could only describe as repulsed.

‘You’ll be coming back with me,’ L’Leth said. ‘You and these Federation spies.’ The Commander’s eyes fell on Amity, seeming to consider the younger woman for a moment.

And then she held out her hand.

‘Well done, Sublieutenant,’ L’Leth nodded. ‘Infiltrating this cabal must have taken great skill and patience. You will be rewarded for your efforts.’

Amity stared at the taller Romulan in shock, and even Boscha seemed to be giving her Commander a wary look. But L’Leth’s eyes were fixed on Amity, her expression insistent. The green-haired woman turned to Luz, giving her a confused look; the human’s eyes were wide and fearful, but she nodded.

‘It’s okay, go on,’ she whispered.

Amity looked back to her old crewmates and slowly started to walk forward. L’Leth watched her as she approached, her hand still held out. Amity knew it was impossible that her Commander didn’t know that she had helped Eda and Spock escape from Bonsboro. She’d considered at the time whether L’Leth’s threat to the colonists had been a ploy, and now here she was, choosing to show mercy over retribution. Even Spock had said she’d done the same to Eda. As Amity crossed the short space between the two sides, a thousand thoughts ran through head – she’d been surrounded by alien influences for the past week, without the guidance of the Empire to keep her on the right path. Had she fallen prey to Federation manipulations?

She walked past L’Leth’s outstretched hand, and Boscha gave a sneering look at Amity’s uniform as she stepped into place between the two other Romulans. Amity looked forward at Eda and Luz, and then up at the outcrop where Spock was stood, watching them.

‘I suspect you’d prefer to come down, Ambassador,’ L’Leth called up to him. ‘Between an execution here or on Romulus, surely choosing the one that keeps you alive for longer would be _logical_.’

But Spock remained where he was, too far away for Amity to read his expression.

‘Don’t you have enough on your conscience, Lily?’ Eda said.

‘My conscience is fine,’ L’Leth replied shortly.

‘Really?’ Eda scoffed. ‘Because I still wake up in the night _sobbing_.’ She directed her glare to Boscha. ‘I’m guessing the Empire told you all about a battle with some Vulcan ships right when Spock was exposed?’

Boscha glanced at her Commander, but nodded.

‘What they didn’t tell you,’ Eda continued, ‘was that those ships were crewed by a Romulan invasion force that we were escorting to Vulcan under cloak. And when we were exposed and Starfleet were about to catch us…’ Eda returned her scowl to her sister. ‘L’Leth ordered the ships to be destroyed.’

Amity and Boscha both whipped their heads around to stare in horror at their Commander, but the taller woman’s gaze remained on Eda.

‘The senate agreed that I made the right call,’ L’Leth said, her voice hard as steel.

‘There were _two thousand_ loyal Romulan soldiers on those ships!’ Eda yelled, enraged tears in her eyes. ‘And you MURDERED them!’

‘I WAS PROTECTING THE EMPIRE!’ L’Leth shouted back, her eyes suddenly wild. Then she took a breath, trying to regain her composure. ‘I understood your inability to carry out that order, E’Dalyn. But I cannot forgive your desertion.’

‘Oh, we’re both well past forgiveness,’ Eda spat back.

Amity met Luz’s eyes across the space between them. The human swallowed and stepped forward.

‘U-Under the authority of the United Federation of Planets,’ she began with a quiver in her voice, ‘I am placing you under arrest for violation of-’

There was a hiss as L’Leth fired her disruptor. The beam hit Luz in the shoulder and she cried out in pain, falling to her knees.

L’Leth smirked. ‘Starfleet, always such a foolish-’

And then the Commander stumbled to the side and fell to the ground. She looked up furiously, clutching her cheek.

Amity was breathing heavily and her hand throbbed from where her fist had connected with the taller woman’s jaw, but she glared steadily down at her.

L’Leth glared back. ‘It’s treason, then,’ she snarled.

Amity heard the hum of a disruptor behind her and span around to grab Boscha’s raised arm. The pink-haired woman swung at Amity with her free hand, and the two grappled. In the corner of her eye Amity saw L’Leth getting to her feet, only to be tackled to the ground again by Eda who had sprinted forward.

As she struggled against Boscha, Amity glanced over at Luz; she saw that Spock had hurried down from the outcrop and was kneeling next to her. The human was sat up clutching the burnt mark on the shoulder of her uniform but seemed otherwise uninjured. Amity looked back at Boscha, gripping the other woman’s arms up level with their heads. There was a little uncertainty in the other Romulan’s eyes, but she pushed against Amity, forcing her back. Amity threw a glance behind her and saw she was being backed towards the edge of the rocks step by step, and that there was a long, steep drop below. She winced at the knowledge of what she’d have to do next, braced herself, and headbutted the other woman in the face.

Boscha stumbled back with a pained yell and Amity clutched her own forehead, which ached from the impact. She blinked, trying to get her vision to realign, and looked up to see Boscha regaining her footing. She scowled at Amity, blood streaming from her nose, and raised her disruptor again.

But then her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed to the floor. Amity looked from the woman’s limp body up to Spock, whose hand was still hovering in a pinch where Boscha’s neck had been.

‘Oh sure,’ Amity said to him irritably. ‘You couldn’t have taught us THAT.’

They both looked over to where Eda had pinned L’Leth on the ground. Spock picked up the disruptor from Boscha’s unconscious hand and trained it on the Commander. She glowered up at him but stopped struggling, and Eda got to her feet. The fight over, Amity turned and ran to where Luz was still sat clutching her shoulder.

‘Are you okay?’ Amity asked frantically as she knelt down next to her.

‘Ow,’ Luz replied.

‘What did Spock say, is it just your shoulder?’

‘Ow.’

‘Don’t worry, we’ll get you back to the _Light_.’

‘Ow.’

Amity looked over at the others; Eda had taken L’Leth’s disruptor and had joined Spock in aiming it down at the dark-haired woman, who had sat up and was giving them both a hateful look.

‘Go on then, sister’ she said to Eda. ‘Enact your justice.’

Amity watched the disruptor tremble in Eda’s hands as she stared L’Leth down. But then she lowered the weapon.

‘Enough people have died,’ Eda said quietly.

L’Leth’s hand sprang to her other arm to slap a button on her tunic, and both she and Boscha’s unconscious body disappeared in a transporter beam.

Luz tapped her commbadge, wincing at the movement. ‘W’Lo, get us back NOW!’

The landscape around Amity shimmered once again, and when the light had gone she was back on the transporter pad of the _Azura’s Light_ , still knelt next to Luz.

‘We’re gonna need that Spore Drive in the next five minutes,’ Eda said to W’Lo as she stepped off the pad.

‘There’s no way-’ W’Lo began, but Eda was already jogging away down the corridor.

‘KAY, BATTLE STATIONS!’ she called out as she ran. W’Lo looked nervously down at Luz.

‘I’ve got her,’ Amity said. She reached one arm under the human’s legs and one around her back, lifting her off the pad.

‘I will assist you,’ Spock said to W’Lo, and they hurried away down the corridor while Amity carried Luz in the other direction to follow Eda.

‘ _Looks like it’s my turn to be carried now_ …’ Luz said in a strained whisper, and Amity choked out a laugh. They went through the door that led to the main deck, and saw Eda and Kay sat at the front consoles.

The black starfield on the viewscreen rippled as the _Infensus_ decloaked in front of them.

‘Shields up!’ Eda ordered as she and Kay both frantically worked the controls.

Amity turned and took Luz into the sickbay, laying her down onto the bio-bed. The ship rocked as a blast hit them, and Amity grabbed the bed to stop her falling onto Luz.

‘Shield grid holding!’ Kay called out.

‘Let’s not give them a chance to break it again, gun it!’

Amity felt a rising vibration below her feet followed by a release as the ship entered warp. She helped Luz bring her injured arm out of her sleeve as carefully as she could.

‘Top drawer…’ Luz gestured weakly to a cabinet, and Amity went over and opened it, pulling out a dermal regenerator. She returned to the bed where Luz was trying to peel her undershirt down over her shoulder. Amity impatiently took the material in her fingers and tore it, opening up a gash in the fabric that revealed the patch of burned skin underneath.

They both hesitated, surprised at the sight of the bare shoulder. Amity glanced up and realised how close Luz’s face was to hers right now.

Then another blast hit them and she stumbled.

‘They’re catching up!’ Kay warned.

‘W’Lo, we’ve run out of time!’ Eda yelled.

‘ _We could do with some help down here!’_ the reply came over the comms.

Luz took the dermal regenerator from Amity’s hand. ‘Go on,’ she said.

‘Are you sure?’ Amity asked, worried.

‘Yeah, I’ll be fine.’ Luz replied.

Amity realised they’d both lifted their hands to each other’s cheeks, and she took in the sight of the still-pained face before her that was forcing a smile. She remembered the flash of all-consuming fury she’d felt when L’Leth had shot the human, and the determination she now felt to never let anything happen to her again.

Then she dropped her hand and hurried out of the sickbay.

She ran into the engine room to see W’Lo frantically darting across the room with a spore canister. She slammed the canister into the socket underneath the console that Spock was working at.

‘Get the coils primed,’ she said to Amity. ‘I’m gonna plug in.’

Amity nodded and went over to the panel that hid the induction coils, hidden in a corner. She pressed the controls on the wall that started the flow of power through, and peered back around the corner to see W’Lo entering the spore chamber. The other woman took one of the leads and plugged it into the plate on her arm, just as the cubicle began to fill with glowing spores.

‘Spore density at maximum,’ Spock confirmed.

‘Let’s do it,’ W’Lo nodded, and clenched her eyes shut as Spock entered the command. The chamber began to glow brighter and brighter…

Sparks suddenly flew from the panel in front of Amity, and she leapt back as smoke started pouring out of it. The light of the spore chamber blinked out. Amity reached out and quickly pulled the panel off the wall, dropping the hot casing onto the floor. She examined the burnt-out coils and slammed her palm against the wall in frustration.

‘ _Stupid Ferengi knock-offs!_ ’ she yelled.

Then she was flung to the side as the ship rocked violently again. An alarm started blaring and steam hissed out of a vent on the ceiling.

‘ _Shields are gone!’_ Eda’s voice cried out over the comms. ‘ _It’s now or never!_ ’

‘What do we do?’ Amity asked W’Lo, who had come out of the chamber.

‘That’s it, without the coils, the drive won’t run!’ she said, panic in her eyes.

‘There must be a substitute!’ Amity turned to Spock. ‘What does it need?’

‘The coils focus the mycelial energy,’ he said. ‘Any replacement would need to be conductive and capable of processing biological information.’

Amity ran through the possibilities in her head. Then she nodded.

‘Power it up again,’ she said.

W’Lo frowned. ‘But what-’

‘There’s _no time!_ ’ Amity yelled and went back over to the coils. She reached in and grabbed the unit, which scalded her hands, but she strained until she yanked it out from between the two sockets and dropped it to the floor.

‘Engaging Spore Drive,’ Spock said, and Amity waited until W’Lo was back in the chamber before she turned the power back on. She lifted her arms, taking a deep breath.

‘Sublieutenant, _wait!_ ’

But Amity was already plunging her hands into the pair of sockets that the coils had connected, Spock’s cry ringing in her ears. White-hot energy surged through her, burning along the veins and arteries that held her copper-based Romulan blood. She cried out in pain – and then she felt yanked from her body.


	11. Chapter 11

Amity saw everything. It was like she was racing along a network of roots that spread out across subspace, peeking out into regular space at points, except those points of entry encompassed every conceivable location in the galaxy. She saw stars, planets, nebulas, Romulus, Vulcan, Earth, hundreds of worlds filled with Borg drones, a Federation ship so far from home, a council planning its next move. A tan-skinned woman holding a picture of her daughter. The onslaught of information was overwhelming, crushing her head into a dense, painful ball. She tried to cry out, but her mouth was too far away.

 _‘…ind to…your mi…_ ’

There was a voice coming from somewhere. Amity tried to reach for it, searching through the mass of images and sounds, desperate for something familiar to centre herself on before she forgot who she was.

 _‘…my th… to your thoughts…_ ’

She found the voice and struggled towards it, wading against an oncoming torrent of sensations. She felt herself being ground down, eroded away, but stumbled on through the blinding rush, reaching out…

Amity felt something gripping tightly to her head, and she made a loose connection in her returning memory of fingers on temples and Vulcan mind melds. She slowly opened her eyes.

But to her surprise, it was Eda’s face that was hovering close to hers, her eyes closed and her mouth moving silently. Amity slowly reached a weak hand up and touched Eda’s fingers; the part-Reman woman opened her eyes and broke out into a smile.

‘Welcome back, kid,’ she said.

Amity blinked as Eda brought her hands away and stepped back. They were in the sickbay, the lights above just as bright as the day she’d first woken up here. She lifted her head, which was aching, and saw other relieved faces behind Eda. Her eyes searched them blearily until they found the one she was looking for.

‘We good?’ she asked hoarsely.

Luz nodded. ‘Yeah, we’re good.’ She stepped forward and brushed a finger over Amity’s hair. ‘You were out for a few days. You might want to do your roots.’

Amity chuckled. It hurt to laugh, but she couldn’t stop herself. Luz started giggling too, through a helpless smile.

And then the human leaned down and kissed her.

Amity only noticed the burnt taste coming from her own mouth when it was contrasted against the sweetness of Luz’s. She felt too weak to do anything other than let the kiss continue, but she was perfectly fine with that.

Luz pulled away, and gave an embarrassed glance around the others, who were politely averting their eyes.

‘We’re, uh…’ Kay began nervously. ‘We’re not _all_ gonna have to do that, are we?’

Amity looked down at the diminutive Klingon, his head just peeking up over the edge of the bio-bed. ‘Why?’ she croaked. ‘Would you like me to find you a box?’

She weakly joined in with the others’ laughter until she began to cough, the sharp sensation painful on her raw throat.

‘I believe she still needs some rest,’ Spock said firmly.

‘Alright, you heard Dr Spock.’ Eda ushered out the others from the sickbay as Spock started running a tricorder over Amity. Luz glanced back and gave her a shy smile as she left.

Once they were alone, Amity looked up at the Vulcan, who was focused on his tricorder readings. ‘Did it work?’ she asked.

‘Yes,’ Spock confirmed. ‘We jumped back across the Neutral Zone successfully. Unfortunately we were not in warping distance of a medical facility, and while we could stabilise you physically, treating your neurological trauma was beyond our means. But Eda’s suggestion of a mind meld seems to have been an exemplary one, based on my current readings.’

Amity nodded as much as she could without making her head throb again. She listened to the soothing chirp of Spock’s tricorder as he ran it back and forth over her.

‘I am in no position to criticise your decision,’ he said, breaking the silence. ‘I once made a similar sacrifice to save my own crew. But I do not believe I appreciated until now... how scared they must have been for me.’

The young Romulan watched the Vulcan continue his scans long after he must have gotten all the information he needed, hovering protectively near her.

‘I know you said you had a difficult father,’ she said.

Spock nodded, still not looking away from the tricorder. ‘I did.’

‘…I think you would have done better.’

Spock glanced up at her, surprised. Then, very slowly, he reached a hand over to rest on top of hers.

* * *

It took another couple of days for Amity to fully recover. The others would all come and keep her company in the sickbay one at a time, Luz spending the most hours out of all of them at the side of her bio-bed. However the exposed open doorway put them somewhat on display to anyone else passing by, so all they could do was chat awkwardly.

Once Amity was finally up on her feet again they had arrived at Khitomer, an old Klingon colony planet that had been annexed by the Romulan Empire a quarter of a century ago. Eda had been able to negotiate her way down to land the _Light_ in an out-of-the-way ground port on the surface, determined to finally get some suitable replacement coils before they moved on.

Spock, however, had announced that he would be remaining on the planet for a couple of weeks. There was no Vulcan-enthusiast movement among the Romulan settlers here, but he made intimations of taking something of a holiday. He told the story of how he had been part of a historic accord between the Federation and the Klingons on this planet almost a century ago, and although he’d lived what many species would consider a lifetime since then, he had referred to it as a ‘last adventure’. As he had told his story, Amity had noticed him toying with the old-fashioned looking Starfleet badge he’d kept with him ever since they’d come back from Veridian III.

So after he had overseen the installation of the new induction coils to the Spore Drive, Luz and Amity followed Spock down the steps from the _Light’s_ airlock to the platform below, Amity wearing her Officer’s uniform again and the human in some civilian clothes with a hat pulled down over her rounded ears.

‘Hey, Ambassador!’

They turned and looked back up to where Eda, W’Lo and Kay were stood inside the open airlock. Eda was the one who had called out, and she glanced around to check there was no-one else around in their little corner of the port. But she gave an almost disappointed sigh when she saw there was no-one watching them, and then raised her hand to part her fingers in the traditional Vulcan salute. She gestured at the salute with her other hand huffily. Spock nodded in acknowledgement and raised his own hand.

He put his middle finger up at her.

Eda’s mouth spread into a grin, and she lowered her hand as she watched the trio turn and walk away across the port.

‘Um, Eda…’ W’Lo asked slowly, seeming to note just how playful the Vulcan’s gesture had been. ‘ _When_ exactly did Spock teach you how to mind-meld?’

The taller Romulan’s cheeks blushed green, and she chuckled. ‘You weren’t there for _that_ lesson.’

* * *

Amity and Luz accompanied Spock to a transport shuttle that was headed to another part of the planet, and he turned to give them a final farewell before boarding.

‘Send us a message whenever you want us back,’ Luz told him.

‘I shall,’ he confirmed. ‘Now Ensign, would you give an old man some assistance and take my bag to be loaded on?’

Luz eyed the bag of Spock’s belongings that he was easily holding out to her, and then glanced between him and Amity.

‘Sure,’ she smiled, took the bag from him and carried over towards the shuttle. Spock glanced down, and Amity saw that he was still holding the old Starfleet badge.

‘I have heard it said that a true family is the one you choose,’ he said, before meeting her eyes again. ‘I believe the truest is the one that chooses you.’

He reached out and gave Amity a small touch on the arm, and she reached over her hand to rest on his. Then, after a few seconds longer, the Vulcan turned and boarded the shuttle. Luz returned to Amity’s side, and they watched the shuttle lift off the ground with a hum and fly off into the sky.

Amity exhaled, steadying her breath, and smiled at Luz. But the human was avoiding her gaze.

‘What is it?’ Amity asked.

Luz hesitated, and then reached into her cloak and pulled out a PADD, holding it out to Amity. The Romulan took it and frowned at the display.

‘Spore Drive schematics?’

‘A bit of them,’ Luz confirmed, rocking back and forth on her feet. ‘Not enough to be able to make one, but they should persuade the Romulan Navy to let you back in.’

Amity stared at her in astonishment. ‘Luz, these are Federation secrets!’

‘I know, and I really, _really_ shouldn’t, but it’s my fault they thought you were a traitor, and…’ Luz cringed her eyes shut. ‘And I’m sorry for being so presumptive with kissing you, I didn’t mean to make things difficult now that you can leave. I just want to make sure you can get your life back.’

Amity looked down at the PADD again. She couldn’t deny that obtaining classified Federation data would be enough to at least get her old rank back, no matter what accusations L’Leth brought against her. Everything could go back to the way it was.

The silence seemed to be too much for the human to handle, and she took a definitive breath. ‘I just want to say I’m really glad I met you, and I hope things go well for you now.’ She finally met Amity’s gaze, forcing a quivering smile, before turning and starting to walk away.

‘Luz, wait!’

The human stopped and turned her head at the sound of Amity’s call. The Romulan’s eyes moved from the other woman to the PADD in her hands, somehow still finding it difficult to speak the truth she now knew for certain.

‘I want to come with you,’ she said.

An involuntary-looking smile came over Luz’s face, but she forced it away and shook her head. ‘You’d be a fugitive, on a cramped, broken freighter with a crew that’s a glowing target for the Empire. No-one would want that.’

‘No,’ Amity admitted, and fidgeted before she could let her next words out. ‘But I want to come with _you_.’

She prayed that the emphasis she’d put on the last word had been enough to make her meaning clear, and when she met Luz’s eyes again her heart raced with the realisation that it had. Surprised joy was bursting out of the human’s face, and she took a few steps back towards Amity. But then she looked furtively around at the other Romulans bustling about the port.

Luz shyly lifted her hand and raised two fingers invitingly.

Amity looked at the hand before her and smiled. She lifted her own. And then she pushed Luz’s hand down out of the way and leaned in to kiss her.

It was a stuttering, clumsy affair, but Amity kept kissing the other woman, determined to let her know just how much she wanted to stay with her. And Luz kissed back just as eagerly.

‘ _Well, that took long enough.'_

The pair slowly parted, and glanced down at Luz’s tunic. Eda’s voice had sounded out tinnily from where the human’s Starfleet communicator badge was hidden below the outer layer of clothing.

_‘If you two are quite done, we’re ready to go.’_

They both looked over at where the _Azura’s Light_ was sat on its landing struts across the port. Amity could just about make out a figure through the cockpit window which served as the viewscreen, and a couple of lights on the ship’s hull flashed pointedly. It gave Amity the uncomfortable impression of the ship wiggling its eyebrows at them.

* * *

The two women came back into the freighter’s main deck, and Amity cringed at the simpering look Eda gave them as she spun round in the pilot’s chair.

‘Aww, look at you two,’ Eda smirked at their blushing faces, one red, one green. ‘You’re like a little pair of traffic lights. Now come on, I’ve gotta see a Gorn about some latinum and I need a co-pilot.’

Amity glanced at Luz, who gestured freely to the empty seat next to Eda.

‘It’s all yours,’ she said, leaning over to give her a kiss on the cheek. ‘You’re one of the crew now.’

Amity felt herself smile, and went over to sit next to Eda. The pair of Romulans launched the ship up from the port through the planet’s atmosphere, and Amity pressed the communications control.

‘Engine room, what’s your status?’ she asked.

‘ _Warp and Spore drives both ready_ ,’ Willow’s reply came.

The clouds visible through the viewscreen thinned and gave way to stars. Amity heard Luz approach her from behind, and although the whole universe was laid out in front of her, the only possibilities she could think about were those with the woman whose hands were affectionately resting on her shoulders.


End file.
